I'll call the meeting back to order.
We welcome the witnesses.
This meeting is called to deal with the procurement process for the integrated relocation program, chapter 5, “Relocating Members of the Canadian Forces, RCMP, and Federal Public Service”, of the November 2006 Report of the Auditor General of Canada.
Colleagues, this issue has been with the committee for several years now. It's had a checkered past. It came before the committee, and we wrote a report in May of 2007. We made certain recommendations. One of the recommendations was that the contract be retendered when it did end, which is at the end of this year.
I just want to make a few statements. I've made them before, members. I'm going to repeat them here again.
I consider this, as your chair, a sensitive issue. Because we're in the middle or in the late stages of an ongoing bidding process, I'm going to urge members to use extreme caution in the questions. As has been said a thousand times before, we're a committee of accountability, not management. It's not our job to embed ourselves within the Department of Public Works and Government Services. We cannot rewrite this request for proposal. We cannot amend it, we cannot change it. So just keep our questions and our comments to the framework.
As to the recommendations that the committee did make in May of 2007, I am prepared to rule out of order any questions about the details or any discussions with prospective bidders and certainly any questions about who was bidding, who may be bidding, who may not be bidding--just anything of those details that would be proprietary or relate to what's going on now. It is a system of accountability. In fact, in the briefing book we got, question four is, “How many proposals has PWGSC received to date for the relocations program tendering process?” That would be, as far as I'm concerned right now, out of order.
Having said that, I want to welcome the witnesses. We have back with us the associate deputy minister, Daphne Meredith. She's accompanied for this one-hour session by Liliane saint pierre, assistant deputy minister, acquisitions branch; Mr. Scott Leslie, senior director, special procurement initiatives directorate; and Ellen Stensholt, senior general counsel.
Welcome to the two new individuals, and welcome back to the two previous individuals.
I'm going to ask Ms. Meredith for her opening comments.