Mr. Chairman, it seems to be a farce that we are talking about the numbers in the estimates of the Department of Public Works and Government Services and the minister refuses to reply because it is not his responsibility, it is someone else's responsibility. How are the members of the House supposed to be able to question the people who are involved if the responsibility is passed around to some other minister just to get this minister off the hook? We cannot have that.
I would hope that when the minister comes back the next time, having had more experience in his department, if he sticks around for a year or more, that he will answer these questions because they show up in his statement and in his estimates. This is what this debate is all about.
I guess we cannot proceed any more so I will change the subject to ACAN. An ACAN is what the government sometimes calls a competitive bid. ACAN, in my opinion, is not a competitive bid process because it is merely a posting of a non-competitive bid award on the website saying that the government will give the contract to this contractor unless somebody disagrees and files a complaint. That is not a competitive bid process.
When I talked to the minister's predecessor, the hon. member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, he said that he would look into the matter. I am asking this minister to recognize that filing a complaint is not a competitive bid process. Could we have some assurance that if ACAN is to be truly a competitive bid process he will make it so?