Government Operations committee  Through you, Madam Chair, just to clarify, the confirmation was asked for by whom?

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, no. There was no consultation, as I indicated earlier, between that period of time of when we forwarded the contract and when we were advised of the decision of Treasury Board and heard about the interpretation of the contract, through the media, by Minister Baird.

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, again, in response to the same question, no, there was no contact made in the intervening period in terms of when we provided the contract and when we received the decision in writing from Mr. Wouters and heard about the Treasury Board's decision through the media fr

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, through you to the honourable member, I don't think it's my place to determine whether that was political interference, just as it's not my place to determine whether the matter that's in front of this committee was political interference.

Government Operations committee  No, Chair. It's my opinion that the City of Ottawa was always forthwith in terms of what it said about the issues of timelines in the contract, the intent of those timelines, and any potential extensions to them.

Government Operations committee  As Mr. Wouters indicated, I could add some context to that. That MOU for the north-south LRT project expired on December 31, 2006.

Government Operations committee  Again, Madam Chair, through you, I can indicate only that in recent discussions with senior staff of Transport Canada they indicated to us that $200 million is still available for application from the City of Ottawa subject to a $30 million or $35 million reduction for the Strand

Government Operations committee  One moment please, Madam Chair. I'm sorry, Madam Chair, but after consultation with counsel here I think I would choose not to answer that question. It could have some bearing on our future issues.

Government Operations committee  Through you, Madam Chair, could I confirm that this was a question?

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, of course senior city staff and members of council were aware that there was an impending election. In response, because we were part of the negotiations, I can tell you what the intent of those clauses were. It is exactly as I said earlier. They were there to allow

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, I'm not sure I understand the question--that the City of Ottawa had been lied to?

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, through you, as Mr. Wouters just said, it was at that time the decision of Minister Cannon to execute the contribution agreement under the authority that had been delegated to him by Treasury Board.

Government Operations committee  No, the contract did not provide for penalties. We were talking about potential cost overruns only.

Government Operations committee  No, the contract did not provide for penalties in that sense, but the numbers we referred to earlier were the potentials for cost overruns, cost pressure, both to the consortium and to the city.

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, through you, I would need to know what point in time the honourable member is referring to. As Mr. Chartrand indicated, this project went through years of planning. There were conceptual estimates made at many times throughout the process. As Mr. Chartrand indicated