I'd like to say that this problem goes back at least two decades. I started with the Department of Defence in 2006 and we have been on this issue, so this is not a partisan issue. This has become an overreliance.
What has happened is that when it becomes easier to ask a contractor to amend their contract to provide a service, it becomes the go-to. It becomes the way that people are looking to stopgap measures to get the employees they need to do the work they need, without having to go through all of the hoops.
One of the things that is important for this committee to know is that the Department of National Defence has two separate agencies. One is a government-owned contractor operator, done by Weir Canada, called the Naval Engineering Test Establishment. They also have a schedule V Crown corporation called Defence Construction Canada.
We have seen these separate agencies, arm's-length agencies, taking more and more of our jobs. Defence Construction Canada was established in 1951. It was to do defence construction only, and they have ballooned to providing environmental services. That was my job when I was at the Department of Defence.
They are doing project management now and also contract management.
When we start seeing those jobs being outsourced—and, again, it happens with all the major contracts as well—they will add somebody to do this work, and it's an amendment after amendment after amendment, ballooning the costs.