Government Operations committee  We can.... We'll do it factually.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. I'll gladly do so.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, members of the committee, we have conducted studies and we have hired a third party that looked over those bills and is doing additional work. Amounts were reimbursed because they did not comply with the provisions of the contract. That has all been posted on our site.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question. I am going to give you a short answer with two parts. First, I am going to mention the numbers, which are very important. In any given year, we have between 55,000 and 60,000 transactions, whose total value amounts to around $17 billion. And 40% of t

Government Operations committee  We use Industry Canada's definition. You need fewer than 500 employees.

Government Operations committee  I have to say that I don't have the number of businesses with 500 employees. But I think that there are quite a few businesses that are rather small in Canada. I might be wrong. We could find that information.

Government Operations committee  If I may comment, Mr. Chairman, since I'm briefed on this regularly and sometimes I do as you did. That's why the estimates adjust the mains. They're meant to be transparent to you.

Government Operations committee  So the numbers will go up and down because I have a lot of projects. That's what happens. I'm going to be given money, and then certain projects will just be over with and there will be minuses. So I'm going to get minuses and pluses.

Government Operations committee  The other thing I would say briefly, Mr. Chairman, is that my world is further compounded by the fact that we have revenue generation. This year, 57% of my budget is not fixed. As we are a service provider, it's variable as a result of demand coming from departments. So I can g

Government Operations committee  First, there are mechanisms outside my department, including public disclosure, and everyone can use them. Second, our department has an ethics program that I feel is very serious. If memory serves, we had a great evaluation from the Treasury Board about...

Government Operations committee  I would like to talk about the period from when I started in the department until now. It has been almost five years. Those events started before that, and in addition, they are before the courts. So that makes it even more difficult to comment. Whatever the case may be, I would

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. These resources come out of an overall envelope of $3.6 billion over 15 years. We are part of this, but we're not the only department. There are a number of departments that have contaminated sites. A decision was made to decrease that liability, both

Government Operations committee  This is the relocation contract, Royal LePage, and its various permutations, so I'll turn to my colleague Tom Ring, who had a hand in procuring the actual relocation package.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I will give you an answer that focuses on our infrastructures, meaning our buildings. You noted that, with the Economic Action Plan, we gave $200 million to PWGSC on two occasions. So that's $400 million that we've invested in our buildings. That was fairly unusual. I

Government Operations committee  It is. If they want, yes. As a matter of fact, Mr. Chairman, I was asking the assistant deputy minister earlier on, and out of the first wave.... We're going to do that through waves. We won't just hire 500 people. There will be three waves of about—I think the first one is abou