Stephen Owen

[Government Contracts, April 29th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, that is not the position of the government at all. The position of the government is that one of the unsuccessful bidders in the original tendering for the relocation contract appealed to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, which is its right and a proper due process. The tribunal found that there was some evaluation criteria that it felt should be re-evaluated. That came back to public works.

There were allegations of bias. The hon. member is quite correct. An internal investigation was done with respect to employees in public works and it was determined, in an overabundance of caution, to re-tender the process.

[Government Contracts, April 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the contracts listed on the Contracts Canada website only go back several number of years. I have asked hon. members if they have specific contracts that they want details of, and this may be one of them, to present those questions to me and I will provide the details.

However, details of contracts do not go back an indefinite amount of time. They are not all on the website perhaps. But, if there is evidence of them, bring it forward. I will review them and provide members with specific details.

[Government Contracts, April 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, it hardly seems to be hidden if the hon. member has the contract. If he would like to give me a copy of it, I will provide a full explanation of the process that led to the awarding of that contract.

[Government Contracts, April 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the member of the opposition says he has discovered a contract that he cannot otherwise find. I am not sure where he found it, but if he would like to give me a copy, we will provide a full explanation of the competitive process that led to the awarding of that contract.

[Government Contracts, April 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the contracts awarded by the government under competitive transparent processes are a matter of public record. They are on the Contracts Canada website.

However, if there is a specific issue or a specific contract that the member has a question about, please put it to me and I will ensure that he gets the answer.

[Government Contracts, April 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, consulting contracts, like any other procurement contract with the Government of Canada, are handled in a transparent, competitive and accountable way. With the exception of smaller contracts, these are posted on the Contracts Canada website. If the hon. member has a specific question about a specific contract, I will be happy to get that information for him.

[Government Contracts, April 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, all contracts are posted on the Contracts Canada website whether they are for Earnscliffe or any other consulting company that bids on government business. These are done in a competitive way with rare exceptions: unless they are under $25,000, whether there is some intellectual property, or whether it is an urgent situation.

[Government Contracts, April 27th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member has a specific accusation to make, let him make it. If he is just going on a fishing expedition, I would suggest he go to Contracts Canada's website at www.contractscanada.gc.ca and the information will be there. If then he has a specific question to ask, we would be happy to answer it.

[Government Contracts, April 27th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, as the Prime Minister said last week, all the contracts that have been awarded to Earnscliffe or any company providing services to the government are either already in the public domain or accessible for review.

I would suggest that the hon. member check with www.contractscanada.gc.ca, type in Earnscliffe and he will have all the information for which he is looking.

[Government Contracts, April 26th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure why the hon. member seeks to have something released that he pretends to now have knowledge of. In fact, there has been no corruption suggested by anybody in this case.

A party who did not win the original bid followed its rights and went to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal. There were some suggestions that some of the evaluation criteria should be reconsidered. However, the government went beyond that, in an overabundance of caution, by re-tendering the project to ensure that everything would be open, transparent, accountable and fair.