Mr. Chair, I find the fourth report extremely interesting and I am in favour of it.
I had asked that we study the process. I think that we have to work with the private sector; that is unavoidable. However, if we talk about the private sector or PPPs, we must also have questions or recommendations on the contracting process. I have always had in mind the idea of a type of inspector general, as they have in the United States, and not just for the army, but also in several other departments.
On the one hand, we have to find a solution to cut down on red tape. We thus have to examine the whole administrative area, clearly. On the other hand, there ought to be a type of certification that would allow people who bid to show that they are lily white. Let's not forget that we are talking about taxpayers' money.
There is something I am wondering about. I don't want to restrict any proposal I might make, but I would limit the examination to the contract allocation process. I would not want the witnesses to talk to us only about increasing the number of bidders, but I would also like to hear about how the contract awards could be managed, for instance by offering the private sector a larger role in the process. Clearly, there is a certain instability in Quebec because of the work of the Charbonneau Commission. That said, I think that while respecting taxpayers utterly, that could become an interesting avenue to explore.
I am only talking about the process here, but no matter what side you are on, we can discuss this more broadly for the purpose of eventually making some more specific recommendations. We could invite certain witnesses to talk to us about the management of the bids.
Obviously, some people will say that it may be up to Public Works and Government Services Canada to deal with that. However, if we want to outline qualifications for the allocation of contracts, regarding bidders for federally-funded projects, we must necessarily talk about the management and the process. We are talking about awarding contracts here. Bidders have to be qualified, and so we have to talk about that a little.
I think that this would complete the committee's report well. It is all well and good to compare ourselves to other countries, but Canada has its own way of doing things, a North American way. We could look at what is being done elsewhere, without putting too much emphasis on that. That said, we are not alone in the universe, and of course we have to take that into account.
In short, we have to see whether we want to increase links with the private sector, if we want to increase the number of bidders. Perhaps we should ask ourselves also if we really need to always award contracts to the lowest bidder, because that can lead to some collusion.
I think that we will not have a choice, Mr. Chair, we are going to have to talk about the awarding of contracts. I move that we amend the fourth report simply by adding a fourth point to be examined, and that is the contract allocation process for contracts that involve infrastructure. I am entirely favourable to the first three points. The amendment would simply seek to add the examination of the contract allocation process.