Sir, I want to say thank you for your service to this country. I want to say thank you to all the public servants who serve our country with commitment and dedication and integrity and grace. I say that, sir, because I did not appreciate some of the comments by my Conservative colleagues that impugned your integrity and I want to just simply go on record to say that I thought that some of the comments by my Conservative colleagues were beneath this committee. They were disrespectful and they were undignified. I want to tell you, sir, that we appreciate, I appreciate, your decades of service to this country and I thank you for that.
You mentioned that this process was free of any political involvement. All procedures for procurement were followed by the book. You said this process was well documented. Indeed, as I understand it, an 80-page analysis was made on this decision. All the angles were looked at to make sure that Canadians got the best value for money.
You used the word “diligent”. You visited 21 properties. You revisited and looked at them. They were valued at anywhere between $8 million and $21 million, and you made sure that when you did make that decision, it was for a property on the lower end of that scale, close to the lowest, if not the lowest in terms of the cost.
You used the word “smart” for this investment and, indeed it was. You are saving taxpayers $3 million on renovations for the old property, saving taxpayers 50% in monthly costs, actually getting a return on investment for that property, because you'll be able to sell the old property for more money, so you'll actually put $4 million back in the bank of Canadian taxpayers. That's smart.
The new apartment is also more accessible than the old apartment was, and it is more functional. There's value added. You're going to be able to host more meetings, important meetings, in that space, meetings that are incredibly vital, especially to border communities like mine. Of the one trillion dollars in trade, one-third goes through my border in Windsor—Tecumseh.
Ninety per cent, sir, of what we manufacture is exported to the United States. Ninety per cent of what we grow, what the farmers in my community grow, gets exported to the United States. Therefore, I value the vital mission, the head of mission and the consulate in New York. It's an important part of our prosperity. The work you do is important to the prosperity of my community and border communities like mine in Windsor-Tecumseh.
I just want to say thank you, sir, for your decades of service to this country. I thank you for your integrity. I thank you for coming here, answering our questions, providing us insight into how the real property procurement process is managed. I thank you for the good work, for the smart investment. I do wish you good luck in the next round of negotiations with our American friends and partners when we do renegotiate important trade agreements like NAFTA. We know how important it is in Windsor-Tecumseh. We know that it set the table for $50 billion of investment in manufacturing in southwestern Ontario. We were able to revive manufacturing in southwestern Ontario. Billions were invested in Windsor, billions in the battery plant in St. Thomas, billions in Alliston, billions across the board, and that was because of the good work we were able to do in large part because of our trade missions.
There was complete revitalization and revival of the manufacturing and automotive sectors in southwestern Ontario. The work you do, sir, is important. It's vital. We appreciate it. We want to make sure you have all the resources you need to compete and to be able to deliver for Canadians not only good value but also good jobs and good investments.
I thank you, sir, for being here today.
