Evidence of meeting #38 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was varin.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President, LM Sauvé
I would like to say, in response to Mr. Gourde's question, that there is an excellent Liberal candidate in the riding of Outremont, where I live. So, that has been settled. When Mr. Mulroney was in office, I was asked to take the place of Mr. Hogue, on your side of the fence. I did not accept.
In answer to your question, Ms. Bourgeois, I would say that he did know.
President, LM Sauvé
It was clear. The room was filled with people from the construction industry, including architects and engineers.
President, LM Sauvé
Yes. In my opinion, he knew perfectly well where he was going.
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Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
For him, it was clear that this cocktail party was a favour returned. What do you think?
President, LM Sauvé
It was clear that it was for fund raising purposes; to bring in money for his party.
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Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
And all the contractors who were in attendance had had access to contracts from his department, particularly for the renovation of government buildings.
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Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
Mr. Sauvé, your bid was lower by about $2 million than what your competitors were asking. How is it that you were able to bid $2 million less?
President, LM Sauvé
Our company is able to use its own labour. Almost 90% of the work that is being done here should involve masonry. However, that is not the case, because there are extremely complex issues relating to structure and mechanics, and so forth. And that gives us, LMS-Canadian Masonry Corp., a competitive advantage—our ability to charge much lower rates, because we have our own labour force and can carry out our own work. For more than half a century, we have had a group of well-equipped and trained workers able to specifically do masonry work.
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Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
When you alluded to Fournier Gersovitz Moss and Associates architects earlier, you said, unless I misunderstood, that they were used to making things more complicated. Did I get that right?
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Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
Could you be more specific? Do these people have close connections to the current Conservative government?
President, LM Sauvé
I don't know. However, I know that on Parliament Hill, there is a tendency to complicate the simplest tasks. Let's not kid ourselves here. Repairing stones is repairing stones. Whether they are on the cathedral in Reims or on Parliament Hill, they are stones. We're talking about geology and mortar; it's simple.
There is a tendency here to make every task five times more complicated than it is, whether we're talking about procurement, the work or the Conservatives. And I'm not talking politics here; I'm talking about people who are supposed to make decisions on the future of buildings and influence the way things are done on-site using the existing inventory of building data. Everything is complicated.
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Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
So you're telling us that, the more complicated things are, the more contractors are needed, and the more it costs taxpayers. Is that what you mean?
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