Public Accounts committee  I understand that.

Public Accounts committee  I'd like to answer. The deputy minister told us what the costs would be. That's when I decided to explore a possibility. Never before, if the deputy minister hadn't told me that—

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  I understand what you are pointing out. Remember what I stated at the outset. When the Deputy Minister at the time, Mr. Gladu, mentioned that we were moving, I asked him where we were going. We were going to move, there was a process, we respected the process set in place by the government.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, I understand.

Public Accounts committee  Not all, Mr. Chairman. At the outset, I said so and I will repeat it for the fourth or fifth time: I also agreed with the move. It was after what Deputy Minister Gladu had to say that I asked for a written verification, in a transparent manner, for the well-being of Economic Development Canada and its employees.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, you will appreciate that I don't have an answer to that. I was the minister of State responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada and I did not know all the details of—

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, I do appreciate the questions. At the outset, I told you that when Deputy Minister Gladu told me that we were going to move, I asked where. I was in full agreement, because the process had been respected. However, he told me about the negative aspects, and that's when I made a decision, but I never said to proceed with the move.

Public Accounts committee  The amount of $4.6 million is based on a leasing cost of $438 per square meter, whereas the price was $308. So you have to be careful with figures. Moreover, I had asked that all the agreements be respected, including the lease with Place Bonaventure. We hoped to say in the same place by negotiating a price.

Public Accounts committee  According to my figures and those I have seen, I must confess, there were approximately 300 employees spread-over three floors: the 39th, 40th and 41st if my memory serves me correctly; maybe it was the 38th, 39th and 40th floors. At the time, Deputy Minister Gladu mentioned that the cost varied between $500,000 and $1 million, plus the cost of non-productivity and the possibility that files might get mixed up.

Public Accounts committee  I never heard about such complaints. However, the deputy minister did tell me that the employees would be very disappointed if they had to move. As you mentioned, some had been there for many years. The work environment was very good, there were many windows, whereas on the other side, there was cement, the train went in front of the building and the restaurant was lacking.

Public Accounts committee  Is the question for me, Mr. Chairman?

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, indeed, that is clearly the reason why I intervened and requested that we respect the rules, if possible. I realize today that that created quite an incident. My intention was not really to go against the rules. I was thinking about the employees, productivity and the money that could be invested in our companies.

Public Accounts committee  Yes.