Public Accounts committee  If I may, the requirements at the time included a fairly extensive fit-up. If you did not include those costs, did not include the costs of physically moving—because there were some costs to be incurred in the move, and there were some costs to be incurred in the purchase of equipment as a result of the move--then yes, there would have been an expenditure incurred, which was not incurred.

Public Accounts committee  From the Secretary of State.

Public Accounts committee  As the record has shown, the documentation that we have on record demonstrates clearly that part of the space request was an issue right at the outset.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I can only answer with regard to the documentation that we currently have, which is that our minister at the time made the request for the department to stay where it was, predicated on no fit-ups and no expansion. That is the documentation that we have on record and, on the basis of that, then the discussions went on with Public Works.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I cannot make that assumption because I do not have any documentation that would lead me to conclude that one way or another.

Public Accounts committee  I will answer it regarding the specific request, which was whether there was documentation from the department to the minister to that effect. The answer is no.

Public Accounts committee  Other than what was provided--

Public Accounts committee  There is internal correspondence about advising the employees once the decision was made to remain where we were. All the documentation we have was provided to the committee.

Public Accounts committee  You are correct in saying that my predecessor did so, because I was not the deputy minister or the president at the time, but, yes, that would be the process. When a lease comes up, there is a discussion with Public Works. In this instance the request was initiated by Public Works to my department--because the lease was coming up--to have a discussion, as is normally the case, on what the requirements were, what our plans were.

Public Accounts committee  The process is as follows. When the lease expires, Public Works and Government Services Canada ask their client – Canada Economic Development in this case - what will be their future needs. Then, an assessment is made based on the needs analysis, which was done. However, within this analysis, CED also told Public Works that the location of their office on Montreal Island was still under discussion.

Public Accounts committee  At the start of the process, we had indicated that this issue would have to be resolved along the way but that, as far as our needs were concerned, we should still be able to maintain the original request. That being said, we had also made some projections based on retrofitting the space.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, when the lease came up for renewal, that possibility was not considered. However, the agency has 14 regional offices spread out in the province. So, about half its staff is already decentralized. Another aspect of the decision relating to the business office of Montreal Island was to get this office out of Place Victoria in order to move it to another part of the city - because its role is to provide services to Montreal Island - and to locate it in a less prosperous neighborhood in order to contribute to its revitalization.

Public Accounts committee  The lease was due to expire on March 31, 2003, if I remember correctly. In fact, that's what the documents say. That being so, a normal process would have been launched to look at our needs in order to see if we were meeting the standards of the time and if we had to move. The analysis and the studies led us in that direction since the agency, at the time, wanted both to keep its office on Montreal Island, at Place Victoria, and to expand.

Public Accounts committee  I will ask my colleague to tell you about the final decision. The request sent up by the Secretary of state to the minister of Public Works was intended to know if it would be possible to stay at Place Victoria. That started a process of determining if it would be appropriate for the government to satisfy the request from the Secretary of state.

Public Accounts committee  It is always appropriate - as my colleague will explain - for Public Works and Government Services to do a cost-benefit analysis. In the present case, we did such an analysis, which is in the documents that you have received, to be able to determine if it would be acceptable for the Crown to let CED stay where they were.