Mr. Speaker, the Department of Public Works and Government Services maintains an extensive data bank of information on contracts let on its own behalf and on behalf of other government departments. However, as stated in the Treasury Board Secretariat contracting policy, the contracting process is to be conducted in a manner that enhances access, competition and fairness. Statistics are not reported by electoral boundaries because they have no bearing on the contract award process. Contracts are awarded based on price, technical merit, or a combination of the two, not on the location of a supplier’s office. Further, contracting statistics cannot identify which geographic area receives the economic benefits of a contract.
However, the Privy Council Office has contacted departments, agencies and crown corporations to ascertain whether they have an electronic capacity to search for and sort financial and contract information by federal electoral district and by city in order to respond to this question. The results of the survey show that approximately 65% to 70% of government organizations are not able to perform an electronic search for information on grants, loans and contributions on this basis.