Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, witnesses, for being present here, although I would be remiss if I did not mention your absence at our last committee on this subject. We had various members from Treasury Board and Procurement Canada, Mr. Chair, if I'm correct, who were present here with us. We had a few questions at that time that they deferred to you folks ultimately, so I'm very pleased that you made yourself available to us today.
Let me be frank: You're in a unique position here such that through happenstance the name of your project happens to be very polarizing. That name has brought you in front of our committee today.
The second issue is the expenditure. Yes, we've answered the question. I feel satisfied that it's not a barn. As a matter fact it's a large maintenance building that houses an immense amount of equipment on behalf of the government and that replaces the functions of other buildings. That's fair.
The questions I'm concerned with and the questions that I think Canadians are most concerned with in a really legitimate and rational way have to do with the expenditure, the amount of the project. Yes, from my perspective it's likely that a project like this would cost as much as $8 million. Your envelope, for example, made clear the parameters around these kinds of costs, which were estimated to be approximately $8 million. I understand that the estimation process and the construction process towards its final amount were accurate. I don't have any questions about that.
My biggest question is related to subcontracting and the work and process of how the NCC decides how a corporation like Pomerleau, for example, could absorb a contract like this and how many periods of fiscal review—their quotes—came in under for the NCC.
It's important, I think, that Canadians understand the unique difference between a Crown corporation and a private corporation. That's an important differentiation that I would like you to speak to. They should also understand the confusion that your first answer can create in relation to my second question, which would be in relation to why the NCC's own team couldn't have done this work and why you felt subcontracting.... That is a large issue here federally. It falls into a large narrative about how subcontracting since 2006 has ballooned out of control. We see that across the public sector.
I'm very curious as to why a Crown corporation on behalf of the government, that's supposed to control costs on our behalf, which is why in particular you exist, would be subcontracting.