Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am thinking of comments that were made earlier, in particular by Mr. Guimont and Mr. Fonberg. We know that rules must be followed, but the Auditor General clearly stated that was not the case with many of them. That is an established fact. You cannot start to rewrite things today for the future. Some things were applicable in the past and should have been applied.
I have gathered that there are teams of experts. I do hope that is what they are. However, this was not on-the-job training. At one point, someone will have to face the consequences.
Billions of dollars are being spent left and right. The existing rules are not being followed. There are delays. Things are said, but in the end, they do not appear accurate. We listen to all that and think that everything is okay.
It is as if there were no parliamentarians here anymore, and you could continue to disregard the rules. You could say that this is equipment that is part of the system, which exists, but it is not in place because modifications are required. This is what we are up against today.
I do hope that we have experts in place and that the people who are hired can do the work. That said, this is not on-the-job training whereby people would be put to work and, if they made mistakes, they will be corrected and allowed to continue.
Billion-dollar projects might well be complex, but that is exactly what one would expect. Such projects are not about buying pencils, but are rather about major acquisitions representing substantial costs. We expect people will follow the rules. That is a basic principle. We expect that what was said in cabinet was a matter of cabinet debate. There should be no surprises down the road.
We do not want to have the Auditor General come with information stating that things were not as they were intended to be, that something else was said in the past and today, we find ourselves, our work here, not being taken seriously.
People should not be led to believe that they are being personally or directly attacked. However, there must also be consequences. When people act in such a way and do not follow the rules, there must be consequences.
I would like to know what the consequences will be for not having followed the rules.