Public Accounts committee  Then the answer to your question, Mr. Christopherson, can be summed up by saying that even with the brief review I've had of this letter, it is full of inaccuracies. Mr. Badun's explanation is incomprehensible to me. I'd join the Auditor General and Admiral Pile and Mr. Marshall on that.

Public Accounts committee  So that's my answer. The bottom line is when I do the calculations, Envoy won the CF contract, and I'd be more than willing to share those calculations with Public Works.

Public Accounts committee  It's Atyeo.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Christopherson. Actually, I'd like to impose on your question very briefly to ask a question of order, because I don't know what the rules are here. I received this letter from Mr. Marshall to the committee about an hour before the meeting started, so I've only had a chance to read it briefly.

Public Accounts committee  We bid on the same contract, but obviously we interpreted the RFP differently. The fact of the matter is that if they bid zero, they bid zero; there should be no charge to the members. I don't understand how they could do that. It says very clearly that they were supposed to put in a ceiling price, and they didn't.

Public Accounts committee  They must have assumed that they were going to absorb it.

Public Accounts committee  Sometimes I wonder. I'm not sure I completely understand your question, Mr. Laforest.

Public Accounts committee  For example, another specific would be the answer that Mr. Bélair gave to the issue of pricing property management fees. The RFP asked us to put a ceiling price on the cost of property management for providing management services to employees who decided not to sell their houses.

Public Accounts committee  We were to quote a ceiling price for the provision of property management services to public servants and members of the Canadian Forces who did not want to sell their houses—not unlike having to quote a ceiling price for the real estate commission that would be paid to real estate agents selling the homes of transferred public servants, or legal fees, or anything else.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, I'd love to have that opportunity. I've already alluded to a couple of things in response to Mr. Christopherson.

Public Accounts committee  Okay. My question on that one—and I said this is a big answer, and I'm giving you a couple of examples—is, why didn't the government react to the finding that there was this conflict of interest? Public Works just sits there with a blank stare and says, “Well, they each paid their own way.”

Public Accounts committee  That's a big question. I will try to be as precise as possible. From the government's point of view.... The reason you're not getting any answers from Public Works as to why 7,200 files per year instead of 30,000, or whatever the number should have been, is that they didn't have the numbers.

Public Accounts committee  I believe I did subsequently write a letter to the chair of the committee, bringing it back to his attention. We were initially under the impression that the motion would be passed within a matter of weeks. My understanding is that there was a substantial lobbying effort of members of the committee by Royal LePage, which slowed the process down.

Public Accounts committee  I can't say specifically. I have been advised by my own advisers that Royal LePage did hire a lobbyist, who I assume approached all the members of the committee to lobby them to not vote in favour of the motion to have this matter referred to the Auditor General.

Public Accounts committee  Correct.