That's a great question. There are foreign players here in Canada that are bidding: HOCHTIEF, Bouygues from France, Carillion. These are companies that have established Canadian components. Those companies partner with Canadian companies. When they are bringing capital or expertise, the reality is that these works happen here in Canada; therefore, the vast majority of the economic benefits, the employment...you don't ship concrete from Germany to build things here.
In terms of enforcement, these are contractual agreements set under Canadian law and enforced under Canadian law. How do you ensure that you can realize on any kind of contractual difficulty? Well, you haven't paid them yet. Their private sector capital is at risk. Not only do you have the contractual outcomes, but you have the hammer of their money at risk to ensure enforcement of the contractual obligations.
In terms of the bidding process, yes, it's different, but the principles are fundamentally the same. When we're talking with federal departments, it's long before the bid process. This is when projects are being conceptualized. We want to do X, Y, or Z. There is quite a process. Is a P3 the right approach? Potentially. Then it's a more detailed analysis of the issues, the risks, the costs. When you are going to construct or undertake a project with just a capital cost of over $100 million, there's a significant amount of upfront work. We're involved in the upfront work. When it comes to the bidding process, it's a two-stage process with both an RFQ and then an RFP process. Given the fact, as was identified, that bidders actually have to take things through the design, it's actually a lot of cost for a bidder to put forward a proposal. Generally, three companies are qualified from the RFQ list. Those bids are evaluated during the whole course of the process. Another mandatory requirement for us is that an independent fairness monitor must be hired who monitors the bidding process and has to produce an independent report on its transparency and its fairness.