Public Accounts Committee on June 15th, 2010

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Will that happen this fall?

[Robert Wright]

For the major piece of work we first have to go to Treasury Board, get authorities, and then go forward with the tender process.

This initial tender offering will be for 40% of the demolition and abatement work, a smaller package, so it will be a pre-qualified list of general contractors and then a “seek for the best bid” price.

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

So then, the process is not yet under way.

[Robert Wright]

No.

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

I imagine that all of the planning has been done. When must the contractor be ready to go? When is the work scheduled to start?

[Robert Wright]

We will be going out for tender in the coming month. That's the plan. The work will begin in September, as soon as the building is emptied.

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

You're saying then that the work will begin in September, that you haven't yet received the necessary authorizations and that you will be calling for bids.

Could you be more specific, Mr. Guimont?

[François Guimont]

We have the resources we need, for example, the 40% for the asbestos abatement process. As Mr. Wright explained, we are preparing to put the work out to tender. It's not actually a tender process. Instead, we choose from a list of pre-qualified contractors. Once the building has been emptied, which should be by the end of August, the work will get under way. We will then request and obtain appropriations from Treasury Board to carry out the remaining stages of the work over the long term.

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

You mean the remaining 60%?

[François Guimont]

Yes, and even more.

I'm talking about appropriations required to carry out the needed work on the West Block, quite apart from the asbestos abatement and decontamination issue. As Mr. Wright explained, as is standard procedure in the case of major projects, an interest call will be held and a fairness monitor will be appointed. That's not surprising, given the size of the contract.

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Can you provide us with a written schedule of the planned renovation work?

I have one last question. Earlier, you talked about your costing methodology. Can you tell the committee a little more about this methodology? You say that costs will total $769 million. I'd like to know how you came up with that number. You mention a logical model or a costing methodology that you use.

[Robert Wright]

We can come back with a full accounting of those costs once we've gone to Treasury Board and gone through--

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

No, that's not what I'm asking you. Earlier, you mentioned a model where everything is triangulated, where all of the stars are aligned, so to speak.

[François Guimont]

We will provide that to the committee. It's going to be descriptive in nature. We'll file that with the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Thank you, Ms. Faille.

That concludes the questions, colleagues.

There are a couple of things I want to bring up.

First of all, Monsieur Guimont, in echoing all the comments we heard today, we all found the tour very valuable, and we want to thank you and Mr. Wright for organizing it. It's too late now before the summer adjournment, but you may want to consider offering that tour again to all parliamentarians come September or October. I think it would be appreciated. I ask you to consider this, because I think it would be valuable for every member to have that opportunity. We'd certainly spread it around that they really should take the tour. And of course you'd have to schedule it so that you're not conflicting with other.... Noon hour actually might work well.

Colleagues, in the last five minutes the clerk has circulated the international peer review that was completed over the past year by auditors from Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. That report has been concluded and is now being tabled with this committee. At the same time, the response from our Office of the Auditor General I understand will be up on the website. Both documents will be on the website of the Office of the Auditor General later today, if the public is so interested.

This committee has tentatively scheduled a meeting for late September or early October with the two principals, who are both from Australia. It will be held at an off hour, probably an evening meeting, to accommodate the time in Australia so the principals can testify. We'll have a hearing not only on the peer review but also on the response from our own auditor's office.

Also, I should point out that a memo was circulated earlier today by the clerk regarding the Quebec conference, August 29 to 31. I urge all members to look at it. All members of the committee are invited and urged to attend. You can communicate with the clerk as to the travel arrangements.

Those are some brief announcements.

I'm now going to turn it over to you, Ms. Fraser, not only for your closing comments on this hearing, but you may want to comment on the international peer review, if I have omitted anything at all. Then we're going to go to Mr. Guimont.

Ms. Fraser.

[Sheila Fraser]

Thank you, Chair.

First of all, I'd like to thank the committee for their attention to this very important issue, and I hope we are able to resolve the governance structure and perhaps prove certain members' skepticism unfounded. Let's hope.

On the peer review, you will note this was an audit that was done of all of our professional practices, which is more extensive than ones that have been done in the past, which focused either on the performance audit or on the financial audit. Not surprisingly, the audit indicated that there are areas we need to improve. There are two. In the performance audit and special exam practice, they concluded that our quality management framework was properly designed and working effectively. On the financial audits, though, they noted that while the framework was appropriate and suitably designed, we have to improve on our risk management and documentation in our files. So we have put together an action plan, and we have quite an extensive project under way, which we have discussed previously, I think, to renew our methodologies throughout the office.

So I look forward to the hearing on that. And if rumours are true and this is the last hearing we have, I wish you all a very good summer.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

This probably won't be the last meeting of the committee, but it will definitely be the last hearing, so on behalf of the committee, we wish you a good summer, Madam Auditor.

Mr. Guimont, do you have any final comments on this issue?

[François Guimont]

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'll simply make three points, the first one being thank you for taking the time to come again and do a tour. I think that being able to see and touch and talk to people can make a big difference in the way you look at things, and I'll gladly get something organized, as per your suggestion.

The second point I would make is that we will follow up the commitments we made. You can count on that, as usual, and I'll do that in a timely fashion.

The third point: the exchange at points was robust, but you know, I take in this an acknowledgement from committee members that you're keen to contribute in making the precinct a better place, and that's the way I'm taking it. I take good note of the points you make, and we'll take it from there.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Again, on behalf of the committee, I want to thank everyone here, thank all of the witnesses.

And I just want to remind everyone that there's another committee coming in, so please vacate the room as soon as possible.

Thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned.