Government Operations committee  Two million dollars.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, may I jump in on this one for a moment? To come back to more basic principles first, it's important to know that every procurement that the government undertakes over $2 million is subjected to a procurement review policy of the Treasury Board. So we go out and let o

Government Operations committee  By all means. It would be my pleasure.

Government Operations committee  Yes, sure.

Government Operations committee  We do not. If it is trade-covered we do not attribute a certain number of points. If it is not trade-covered we can apply what is a Canadian content policy, and at that time we'll look at—

Government Operations committee  As a rule we would go for the best value product for Canadian taxpayers, not the cheapest price.

Government Operations committee  And I think I tried to be very clear in my remarks about that. It's not about buying at the cheapest price.

Government Operations committee  I'd have to make an educated guess here, but we can certainly provide the numbers.

Government Operations committee  It might be more appropriate if we actually gave you the breakdown of the number of contracts and what they are. You have to appreciate, again, that the number goes up and down every year. The table I provided you is titled “Greater than $25,000”. Let me be very clear about thi

Government Operations committee  Architectural and engineering-type work. An architect who designs a building has moral rights to the design of that building. We are obliged to go back to that architect if we wish to make modifications to the look and feel of that building. That's one particular area. There's a

Government Operations committee  I read the trade agreements very clearly as an attempt to be non-discriminatory. We are not to discriminate against suppliers of signatories to the trade agreements any more than they are against our companies. When we are looking at procurements, however, there are a number of

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Saint Pierre. Mr. Chairman, I too appreciate the opportunity to address the committee and to share with you some specifics of public procurement from the perspective of PWGSC that I have realized over my 20-plus years in public procurement. This will be a fairl