Government Operations committee  When a complaint is filed with the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, the complainant provides their rationale for the concern that they are raising with regard to the procurement that was undertaken. If PSPC is the procuring organization, then as part of the CITT's process we're given the opportunity to provide what I believe is called an institutional response, which is basically our explanation of what happened in terms of the procurement process, in order to provide the tribunal with information on the procurement.

Government Operations committee  My understanding is that it occurred within the last day or two. The rationale or the explanation for the CITT's determinations is usually made available on their website, and my understanding is that it has happened within the last day or two, but I don't have the specific date.

Government Operations committee  That's a good question. I can't speak to the regularity of it. Representatives from the tribunal might be able to explain this better. My understanding is that in instances where the tribunal finds in favour of either the company that's filing the complaint or of the federal contracting department that is responding, part of their mechanism or part of their process is to award costs.

Government Operations committee  If call-ups had been issued against the standing offer, yes, those call-ups would have been given contracts.

Government Operations committee  It was just the one.

Government Operations committee  Not offhand, I don't.

Government Operations committee  Do you mean the standing offer with regard to conveyor belt X-rays?

Government Operations committee  There was only one standing offer that was awarded.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. I actually don't have that information with me. If it's possible, we could provide that to the committee.

Government Operations committee  I don't know of the other two that met all 63. What I can say is that, of the seven companies that submitted bids—obviously one of them was Nuctech, which is from China—the remaining six companies were either from the U.K., Canada or the U.S.

Government Operations committee  Technically, a standing offer has a dollar value of zero. In our systems, we actually need to put in a dollar amount, so our procurement officers will tend to put $1. In request for standing offers, there are times when we will give an estimated value of what we anticipate could be the potential call-up value of all the call-ups that would be issued.

Government Operations committee  No, that was.... The standing offer has no dollar value associated with it, so the total cost would depend on what call-ups are issued and how much equipment, in this case, would have been procured or could have been procured. The $6.8 million, I assume, would have been an estimate in terms of what a potential value would have been, because as I indicated there's no obligation on the part of the Government of Canada with regard to these.

Government Operations committee  In a scenario where a standing offer is in place and the department wants to issue a call-up against that standing offer, they would issue the call-up to the company that—

Government Operations committee  For X-ray conveyor belts.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. As quick background, the question that I was responding to was whether I could guarantee that we will never do business with Nuctech moving forward. In my brief response to that, I indicated that I can't provide the guarantee that that will never occur.