Mr. Speaker, the motion that we are dealing with essentially calls on the federal government, not only this one but all future federal governments, to do away with the concept of accepting unsolicited proposals for consideration of a property or, I suppose, in any other aspect, with regard to getting assets for the federal government.
I am trying to be diplomatic, but the best thing I can say is, that is a profoundly stupid idea. It is incredibly dumb. In fact, the member should know that a number of federal government buildings have been purchased or leased through this process and it has led to incredible value for taxpayers' dollars.
I would encourage the hon. member to talk to the member for Kings—Hants, the member for Sudbury, and the other former ministers of public works that are on the government side. I would be more than prepared to wager with him that virtually every single one of them will tell him that this is a profoundly stupid idea, because it is.
I have already given examples before. I will give him one more. Just a couple of blocks away from Parliament Hill, 90 Sparks Street was purchased by the Crown for $60 million and it is now occupied by a dozen federal departments and agencies. Its appraised value at the time was $72 million. It was purchased for $60 million through an unsolicited process and it got value for taxpayers' dollars.
The idea of walking away from this whole approach to doing business is dumb. As I have said, we believe in competition. We believe in an open, transparent and effective tendering process. If he is condemning it in this one circumstance with regard to the former JDS building, it was his government that entered the process years ago and started negotiating on this back in 2004.
We believe in getting value for taxpayers' dollars. We do not believe in taking away options from the table for the government to get value. The member, with respect, really does not know what he is talking about here.
Having unsolicited proposals is an opportunity to get value for taxpayers if it is used in the correct manner. On a number of occasions in the past it has been and in the future it may well be, but for him to just carte blanche say it is a bad idea, is profoundly stupid.