Public Accounts committee  They're paid in Canadian dollars.

Public Accounts committee  I would like to make a correction. I apologize, I believe they were paid in Canadian dollars. I have been told that the Sikorsky Cyclone maritime helicopters were paid in Canadian dollars. In the case of the Chinooks, the transaction was in U.S. dollars.

Public Accounts committee  I agree with the AG. In the department, we use both lowest-price-compliant and best-value-for-the-crown. But after discussions in the department and in view of the audit, our action plan clearly says that we need to look into this question. What we need is a framework. I don't h

Public Accounts committee  Am I allowed to give an answer or...?

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. I appreciate it. On the issue of documentation, and just to expand on that difference of opinion, the Auditor General has a very clear view that we should have on file a robust, very strict, sole-sourced justification. When we carry out an ACAN, we use a market analys

Public Accounts committee  In that case, I will continue. Very good. I will do so in English and in French if you're comfortable with that. On the issue of criteria, when we had a company, through the ACAN process--which is meant to be open, fair, and transparent--we posted it for 30 days instead of

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, I will address the issue of openness, fairness, and transparency, and I'll let my colleagues from DND speak to the issue of cost, if that's okay with you. First, on the acquisition of the Sikorsky Cyclone helicopters, we had a fairness monitor who oversaw the biddi

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, on the first amendment.... Regarding the first amendment, there was a difference of opinion with regard to certain aspects of the contract. What we use in the terminology is called "excusable delays". In our opinion, there was a reason for the delays which were re

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm very pleased to appear before you today with my counterparts from the Treasury Board Secretariat and the Department of National Defence as part of your study of the Auditor General's fall 2010 report, in particular the chapter on the acquisition of mi

Public Accounts committee  Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll simply make three points, the first one being thank you for taking the time to come again and do a tour. I think that being able to see and touch and talk to people can make a big difference in the way you look at things, and I'll gladly get s

Public Accounts committee  We have the resources we need, for example, the 40% for the asbestos abatement process. As Mr. Wright explained, we are preparing to put the work out to tender. It's not actually a tender process. Instead, we choose from a list of pre-qualified contractors. Once the building has

Public Accounts committee  Yes, and even more. I'm talking about appropriations required to carry out the needed work on the West Block, quite apart from the asbestos abatement and decontamination issue. As Mr. Wright explained, as is standard procedure in the case of major projects, an interest call will

Public Accounts committee  We will provide that to the committee. It's going to be descriptive in nature. We'll file that with the committee.

Public Accounts committee  Which tendering process would the member be referring to, Mr. Chair?

Public Accounts committee  Okay.