Government Operations committee  We were asked to provide some information, and I'm sorry that I didn't catch what information from us you were looking for.

Government Operations committee  I'll certainly provide you with that information. It's important to know things seem to be getting better, as the other gentlemen noted. The announcement yesterday was a good sign for us. If the dialogue opens up again and it is true consultation, which I think it should be, th

Government Operations committee  Various elements within the RFP document were going to have various effects on the industry. Obviously, the potential to go from 41 companies to seven would potentially force over 100 companies out of business. Number one, the fact they were looking at forcing the rates down was

Government Operations committee  I would like to say to Mr. Moore that the government has to realize they can't have one fix for all the sectors. Everybody has unique situations, and they have to realize there aren't going to be 10% savings in certain sectors. As Mr. Ingle said, we're a sector with 3.8% pre-tax

Government Operations committee  Although I'm very fond of Jeremy and my other colleagues here, they are competitors, and I don't want to work with them on a daily basis, although since June 29 I've been pretty much working on a constant basis with them. The other issue on a joint venture is that there has to b

Government Operations committee  I definitely would agree that the propensity is for the prices to go higher. I explained what we feared in our system with respect to the standing offer on the renewal. We did a fair amount of research into the reverse-auction process, which was an integral part of this proposal

Government Operations committee  We've always said it was an efficient and effective system. It was developed over time and over an evolution as we changed it and modified it and fixed it up, and that was the process we were expecting to go through again. Anything needs to be adjusted and changed.

Government Operations committee  There are 143 suppliers on the list. The majority of the business is supplied by probably 35 to 40 suppliers.

Government Operations committee  I don't have an exact date. I can certainly get it for you, but I don't have it with me today.

Government Operations committee  Yes, I will.

Government Operations committee  With respect to what can be done, we heard with pleasure yesterday about the creation of a permanent government-industry committee, but this is not a new invention. This was the relationship we had up until January this year. Our current system is a product of over 25 years of on

Government Operations committee  Two things are going on here. There's the whole way forward, procurement reform, and then there's the individual, how we're dealing with the individual sectors and how we're going to purchase their particular products and services. My interpretation was that the permanent governm

Government Operations committee  If I may, the department officials have suggested that the current system is broken. We have been requesting through the course of the summer an opportunity of hearing how they feel it's broken. We are still awaiting that opportunity. We're quite willing to sit and figure this th

Government Operations committee  We were not able to. We actually asked to see that documentation at that June 22 meeting and were told that for competitive reasons it wasn't available. We then went through the access to information process and are still awaiting the documentation. I believe it's a 30-day turna

Government Operations committee  There were no consultations with our industry.