Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I thank all of the witnesses for being with us again today to provide us with this overview of the audit reports.
I'm going to ask a few questions on one of the reports, for personal interest—actually, it struck a chord with me—and that's the one on heritage buildings, the patrimonial aspect of our country.
I was quite distraught to see that we pay so little attention to what little historic patrimony we have in this country. We are a very new country, so we don't have that many heritage buildings around, or even heritage areas. It seems astounding that we don't put emphasis on preserving and taking care of these buildings as they warrant, in my opinion.
For those who don't know, I am of European origin. In Europe, it's very normal to pay great attention to all heritage properties. I was very shocked to discover the state of our heritage properties.
I'd like to know if this is entirely due to the lack of financial means.
In paragraph 19 of your brief, you say:
“We...found that conservation decisions were based on available resources and operational requirements, rather than heritage considerations.”
Is this mostly an issue with money, rather than a lack of public interest? Is that why we are neglecting our heritage buildings to that extent?