Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being present here today.
I do appreciate the Conservative members present here who initially put a motion for this important questioning, because I think it touches on.... I think this is a symptom, largely, of a greater issue. There seems to be an issue not so much within the procedures, procurement and operations of the NCC, but I think what's of the biggest concern to most Canadians, to be really frank, is the transparency, trust and accountability of these expenditures.
That, in itself, is something that I'd like to focus on, and how we can understand the processes of accountability and transparency that are already within the NCC—because in many cases we deal with large departments and large operations like yours—and better understand how these things are made more accountable within the NCC, because it's no secret that these issues affect a great deal of how the country looks at building trust with its institutions.
Not only is this barn a pretty serious circumstance of what one would expect versus what value Canadians get, but I think just to confirm some of the facts would be important for Canadians to better understand this.
My first question is in relation to the type of project. It's understood as “the Barn”—I understand that, of course—but my understanding is that it's attributed that name because it sits on the former historical grounds of the original barn that stood there, but it's no longer operationally a barn. Is that correct?