I'm just having fun with you.
Mr. Chair, I am in agreement on one thing, which is that we cannot amend this to the point where witnesses will be asking for more money. That will lead nowhere.
However, we want to make sure that we can not only validate the current situation regarding our own infrastructure, but also find a way of spending taxpayers' money in the best possible way; we must determine what tools we need to avoid some of the experiences that other sectors have gone through.
That is why I am emphasizing the fact that looking at the process is essential. In any case, to my mind, we could both look at the process and implement Olivia's comments. There is no doubt that when you study infrastructure, you have to know the current status of the infrastructure in question.
I would invite our colleague to reformulate things so that we can find a solution we all agree on. At the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, infrastructure has always been the poor cousin. However, we don't want things to change in such a way that the municipalities tell us that they need more money. In any case, they will be saying that.
While emphasizing a recommendation on the need to renew the investment plan, I think we should go much further. I think that the committee's study should be far more technical, so that we can define what we mean by “expertise”. Our role as parliamentarians is to accompany the state, in a way, so as to give it additional tools and guidance on how situations are to be managed.
That is why, given that, the committee's study could become really important. This must not become an exercise that drags on indefinitely, where all we are doing is buying time and hearing a whole lot of witnesses who will all say the same thing, while everyone plays a partisan game.
Here we have the opportunity of saying that the private sector has to play a role, and that we have to reduce red tape, and not only increase the number of bidders, but also take a close look at the issue of the lowest bidder. I think we aren't that far apart. In fact, I don't know what game is being played, but we are somewhere between the two. We must not talk about increasing taxes, because people are taxed enough already. Perhaps we should check first to see whether there are additional sums of money available, and examine how funds are being managed now, and determine whether there are any measures...
called best practices. When we're talking about best practices, we see what's going on in some other countries.
I believe that we should take a vote on what Olivia is proposing, Chair, but I would come back to the procedure for managing the way you attribute contracts. If Pierre wants, he can put a little bit in the fourth report saying that we should also include some of the studies to see what the best practices are outside. We'll pick it up from there.