Government Operations committee  That is a fair question, and that absolutely was considered. It comes back to the theme of ownership and how owners determine how they invest money in their buildings. I will give you a very fundamental example. A builder builds a home. The homeowner decides to spend all sorts o

Government Operations committee  Well, both of us have had a significant amount of experience in traditional sale and leasebacks, where there are many reasons for structure in the sale and leaseback. I'm not sure specifically what information you want me to elaborate on.

Government Operations committee  This is a trend that's been continuing, and I don't see any change in the trend. Owners look at sale and leasebacks for a host of different reasons. They all have different purposes for structuring them. Our role is to understand those purposes. The lease, which is a key to a s

Government Operations committee  First of all, in fairness to the government or other governments, I don't think it's only governments. I think owner-users tend to be poor managers of their real estate. There are corporations that are excellent, but from my experience, I can tell you they also overspend. There

Government Operations committee  I can answer that. Yes, and I think the minister also made that reference. There will be a mechanism for the government to buy back.

Government Operations committee  That I can't comment on.

Government Operations committee  I have not done a sale and leaseback for another level of government, no.

Government Operations committee  No.

Government Operations committee  First of all, just to clarify, there isn't necessarily a recommendation to dispose, and there wasn't, even at the beginning. The recommendations will be to look at optimizing the real estate--the other 31 and change--in terms of how they best meet the objectives of what the gover

Government Operations committee  The quick answer is yes. There is a long answer that does stem back to this whole issue, which is, as you probably know, the government has chosen over the years to not carry a number of those costs. That's part of the reason as tenants they've seen certain buildings deteriorate,

Government Operations committee  But at the same time, they'll be certain that the repairs and maintenance are being carried out, in which case the building will be maintained to the standards their employees require.

Government Operations committee  There will be certain risks. I can't be too specific, but the lease does transfer certain building risks to the landlord. That is part of the structure and strategy behind the transaction.

Government Operations committee  I would add that I think one of the key characteristics is that they are what we would describe as “conventional office buildings”. They are basically downtown, straightforward office buildings that have utility for government operations throughout, and they effectively are optim

Government Operations committee  First of all, I can say that in previous transcripts that I have seen, Minister Fortier has already indicated that the base of the lease was taken from a lease that was previously negotiated between Morguard and the CBC, which various parties considered to be a strong and balance

Government Operations committee  I would say that there's something that is maybe a misconception. We keep talking about property management and poor property management. I think what you need to do is to take this to the higher level. If you look at major property owners, what they really use is what they call