Transport committee  On the principle, we want open and free competition without restrictions. On the fine point of how you get there and how you would use infrastructure agreements to do that is where we introduce this caveat: be sure what you're doing in those circumstances. The City of Hamilton ma

Transport committee  Not hiring locally.... We're opposed to regional preferences for businesses; in other words, a situation where it is indicated that if price is the only criterion, you still have to be 10% to 15% lower than the local guy. That could contribute to a situation in which you scare aw

Transport committee  We've always said that we support diligent, vigilant environmental assessment. Our problem is that we have to wait for that green light to go on to develop a project. The worst thing that can happen is that the green light goes amber or goes red because of lack of certainty of th

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  Well, sometimes it's the entire project that's gone.

Transport committee  The investors have said, “Look, we don't have to do it here in Canada.”

Transport committee  Correct.

Transport committee  When it comes to the private sector and money, certainty is everything.

Transport committee  There are many project delivery methods and many contracting methods, and not all of them are assessed or evaluated on price alone. In fact, P3 projects are a perfect example of that. Essentially it's a design-build project from the point of view of the actual construction. Yes

Transport committee  I don't have a figure on that, because it's something we wouldn't ask them to report on, but if you go by market share, it's whatever the market share is. It would be approximately the same percentage.

Transport committee  Because of the long-term financing involved in these projects, the financiers for performance security require liquid instruments like letters of credit. However, contractors in North America have been using the bonding industry for that performance security. They don't necessari

Transport committee  No.

Transport committee  Absolutely.

Transport committee  Absolutely.

Transport committee  I would say that any time those artificial restrictions are imposed on competition, whether it's through closed bidding, putting in regional preferences and keeping non-local contractors out, etc., one sees immediately that prices, innovation, productivity, etc., suffer as a resu