Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  I'd like to weigh in here. The P3 option in those circumstances gives you the opportunity, as the public sector, to insist upon a certain quality standard of that asset all during its 35 years, and upon the standard of quality at its turn-back. Mr. Wallace has said that one of

Government Operations committee  Well, very often it's because of the additional risks or incentives that are in the contract. You may have a situation.... For example, if you have 18 high schools bundled, you must deliver those all at the same time and at the same opening date, and you take on the risk of any d

Government Operations committee  For example, in the traditional crown construct situation, basically the design is done, it's finished, it's specified, and you ask for lowest price. Don't you dare vary from that designer spec. Don't even come in with an unqualified or unsolicited alternative, because you'll be

Government Operations committee  There is no question it's very important. I think, despite some of the political problems with respect to that, it can be achieved by working with the private sector and other stakeholders.

Transport committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. We'd like to thank the committee for providing the Canadian Construction Association, or CCA, as it's known by its acronym, with the opportunity to appear before you today. My name is Michael Atkinson, and l am the president of the association.

Transport committee  I don't have an example, but I want to clarify and make the point that our position is that we would oppose any kind of restriction. Whether that's going to impact competition is going to be very dependent upon the marketplace. For example, we would also be here telling you we're

Transport committee  It's likely to impact the competition. Similarly, we've opposed and been in front of federal committees before saying that federal funds should not be supporting local or regional preference policies where the out-of-province or out-of-county bidder has to be your 10 or 15—

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

Transport committee  No. What I'm saying is as a taxpayer here in the city of Ottawa, I would be very upset with the local city government if they restricted bidding to city of Ottawa contractors only in the same way. Whether they are union or non-union doesn't matter. You're restricting competition

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 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.