Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, it's really important—

Public Accounts committee  I'm trying to answer the question by saying that, yes, there are—

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I think the “penny-wise and pound foolish” adage is appropriate in a deferred-maintenance context. The evidence is very clear that if you don't invest sufficient funds in keeping your assets in good condition, there are real risks that you'll end up spending more if you postpone that work.

Public Accounts committee  That's right. The staff in Alexis' team who are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of all of the official residences are based out of the Rideau Hall operation zone, and they are using the service, maintenance and storage building for the equipment, vehicles and everything required for the maintenance of all of Canada's official residences.

Public Accounts committee  I do.

Public Accounts committee  No.

Public Accounts committee  The building that is most in need of deferred maintenance is 24 Sussex, the official residence of the Prime Minister. I believe, Alexis, that is one of.... Are there other buildings that are still in critical condition?

Public Accounts committee  We have other buildings in poor condition. We have a list of worst to best, and we categorize them through an asset-condition report that we updated in 2021. That information is actually publicly available, and we're happy to point—

Public Accounts committee  Yes, there was some consideration given to whether or not this was a facility that could be built off-site. That was actually a line of inquiry I initiated shortly after arriving. The answer to that was no, in large part due to the fact that Rideau Hall, being 79 acres, is really the locus or centre of where a lot of the maintenance work happens.

Public Accounts committee  I wasn't at the NCC at the time. Is that information that's publicly available...? I think there were three, but I'm going to—

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  In my recollection of the project, 20 subcontracts were bid in a competitive fashion.

Public Accounts committee  I can answer part of the question in the sense that with regard to amounts below a certain amount, there would have been some sole-sourcing done for smaller amounts. As to how many single bidders there were within the 20, I don't have that information—

Public Accounts committee  I don't think we have it on hand. My guess is that it would be a small proportion of the overall contract amount.

Public Accounts committee  Yes.