Thank you. I appreciate this.
This is exciting for me, because at constituents' doors, we heard a lot of what was going on with GC Strategies, so I can finally bring the voice of my riding to this public accounts committee. It's quite exciting.
I want to touch upon—and I thank you for touching upon—value for money. This is very important to me personally and to Canadians and Conservatives, I think. I want to touch upon how we had some success, in that we passed the motion to get $64 million back for taxpayers, and I'd like to thank our member from the Bloc for supporting that as well.
Therefore, my line of questioning will be around value for money. On page 8 of your report, you mention that federal organizations hired by GC Strategies were hired for their “specialized expertise”, but on page 9, you noted that in 33% of the contracts you reviewed, those same organizations could not show that the contractors actually had the necessary experience and qualifications.
We all know that GC Strategies is a two-person company that simply outsources the work that it receives. Is it standard practice for government departments to not check the skills and qualifications of people hired through their outsourcing contracts?