Government Operations committee  Under green or overall?

Government Operations committee  This was a government decision. They decided to change the location of the agency. I can't tell you why that change was made. I believe that was done right after the election when the new cabinet was established.

Government Operations committee  I don't have the exact numbers in terms of contracting, but we will get it to the committee, Mr. Chair. Our contracting practices depend on the workload, and also the expertise that is required by the department. In transport we always end up going outside with certain contracts

Government Operations committee  Let me say two things. Number one is that because we run large funds in Infrastructure Canada, we're always very careful as to how they are managed. We always do reviews by our chief audit executive on our major programs. Our chief audit executive has done that kind of a review.

Government Operations committee  Good afternoon and thank you, Mr. Chair. It is a great pleasure to be here today. I am accompanied by representatives of two departments. First of all, I will introduce those from the Department of Transport. I am accompanied by Anita Biguzs, Associate Deputy Minister, and Andr

Government Operations committee  Okay, maybe it was for the translators. My apologies. We would like to use a tiny bit of our time to cover the green infrastructure fund, which we had left out of our comments. That might be of interest to some of your members. I'll start with a few words on transport. One of

Public Accounts committee  I would like to clarify the involvement of two officials you've mentioned, Mrs. Nichols and Mrs. Hirshberg. They are Infrastructure Canada officials who were responsible for administering the 32 projects.

Public Accounts committee  Our department was the responsible department for administering this fund. If you look at the e-mails that are in the system, which some honourable members have mentioned, they are conversations with various proponents about costs, contribution agreements, and basic program admin

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I outlined a few minutes ago, when the new money came into the department, the department did not have that much time to get the program up and running. The projects had to start within weeks. Therefore, departmental officials tried to find the most e

Public Accounts committee  Infrastructure Canada's role on the G-8 legacy fund has been very clear. I don't think there is any confusion about our role. We have confirmed it with the Auditor General. We provided all of the documents she and her team asked for. Our involvement was on the 32 projects and o

Public Accounts committee  We have documentation, in written format, to the Auditor General that the department submitted, outlining the exact role we played. That was signed by me.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As Minister Baird mentioned, in February 2009 new money came into the department and the administration of this fund came under Infrastructure Canada authorities. At that time, some of these projects had to start within weeks, if not days, because mos

Public Accounts committee  First of all, Minister Clement was not our minister; therefore, there was no particular reason for Minister Clement and us to have any discussion on this file. Second of all, absolutely no; we did the due diligence as we saw fit, and our minister, Minister Baird, has supported u

Public Accounts committee  The framework we apply to any funding program is to ensure that we follow the law, we make sure that government pays the bills that are appropriate, and we make sure that results are achieved. These are the general objectives of any program. In this particular case, for the 32 p

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Forster is going to answer.