I think this is a very important step in trying to ensure accountability. As a major contractor's bid on infrastructure in this country, nobody wants to be highlighted in Parliament as having failed to produce benefits with the billions of taxpayer dollars they've received. I'd liken it to the whole issue of green standards in construction. In Toronto, I used to head the Building Trades Council's efforts to try and raise green building standards, because we believed they would help substantially reduce operating costs and help the environment as well. It's not that long ago I attended a forum with one of the largest contractors in our country who was seeking to become the greenest builder in this country. They understood that's where the market would be, and they wanted to be able to say to the public and to the owner clients, “If you take us on, we can deliver this because we have a track record”. To some degree this is the owner client, the Government of Canada, saying we are looking at the track record of major infrastructure companies in this country, and we are tracking that and reporting on that, and hopefully shining the light on those results will help improve outcomes.
On November 3rd, 2016. See this statement in context.