Public Accounts committee  In short, yes. The slightly longer answer is I mentioned that we have something called the "asset priority index". What that does is evaluate our assets and help us make investment decisions based on the condition of the asset in question.

Public Accounts committee  It's the board of directors that makes the decisions—

Public Accounts committee  Pomerleau was charging—

Public Accounts committee  —the NCC a fee for acting as construction manager. Absolutely the answer is yes.

Public Accounts committee  Yes. They are a private enterprise. They are serving as our construction manager. The important point that I really don't want to get lost in this is that the NCC had done an assessment prior to going down the road of engaging a construction manager to ensure that it was cost-effective—

Public Accounts committee  —and it was the right course of action.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, that's a hard question for me to answer. I'm agreeing with the member that we had a deferred-maintenance challenge, and I'm agreeing that we made our best efforts to ensure value for money in the construction model we pursued. Those are two independent facts with which I agree.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I do need to say that the NCC takes the stewardship of public funds extremely seriously. We ensure not only that there are external opportunities for review of the NCC's financial conduct through annual audits by the Office of the Auditor General—

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, it may be useful to note, since the question of 24 Sussex was raised, that the NCC is awaiting a decision by the Government of Canada on the future of the official residence of the Prime Minister. It might be interesting—

Public Accounts committee  I can speak only about the NCC and the work the NCC has done with Pomerleau.

Public Accounts committee  Just to clarify, Mr. Chair, what I'm saying is that we absolutely have numbers for our relationship with Pomerleau, but the question—

Public Accounts committee  Yes. That's in the sense that, as a national historic site, even though the operation zone is separate and, as you've seen from the handout, is not next to Rideau Hall, we still have to honour and respect the regulations and policies that govern national historic sites. For instance, the construction of the service, maintenance and storage building was subject to review and approval by the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I think it's important to make a distinction. The entire site is a national historic site, and by virtue of the service, maintenance and storage building's being constructed on a national historic site, it is subject to approval by the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I don't have the number for what Pomerleau made from the public service, but—

Public Accounts committee  That would have probably been my predecessor in the first case, and after the second request for proposals, that would have been me.