Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. When you look at the RPP, report on plans and priorities, you see that for the accommodation program for 2015-16 we are looking at $2.1 billion, in comparison with year-end spending of $2.2 billion. It's fairly stable. There are increase

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. If you compare main estimates to main estimates, you will see there is an increase. In fact, there is an improvement in the way we are funding our portfolio for real property. We used to seek funding and do another set of exercises and sup

Government Operations committee  Definitely.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. There are several parts to your question. I will try to respond to each of them. Can we predict certain increases? We can plan, but it's difficult to be exact because it's not easy to predict what department will increase its expenditures, how many

Government Operations committee  There are two components to that $17.5 million. The first is the increase in bank fees for card use, and it comes to$16.2 million. The second is the increase in postage, which represents $1.3 million. When we add the increase in bank fees and in postage, we see that $1.3 million

Government Operations committee  That's in exchange for services we receive from the banks.

Government Operations committee  We have a contract with SNC-Lavalin that is expiring. The contract has been renewed. My colleague Pierre-Marc Mongeau could tell you more about that.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, committee members, I am pleased to be here today as the Chief Financial Officer of Public Works and Government Services Canada, or PWGSC, to discuss the department's 2014-2015 supplementary estimates (C). With me are Brigitte Fortin, Assistant Deputy Minister of the A

Government Operations committee  Our lease agreements are competitive. In our financial analysis, we definitely consider the costs of all the benefits and drawbacks. That is how we decide where we will lease a property.

Government Operations committee  You're touching here on the fundamentals in terms of planning of the programs and the reallocation of space resources, so I would turn to Monsieur Mongeau to answer the question.

Government Operations committee  Well, there is inflation involved in the number—let me deconstruct for you very quickly—

Government Operations committee  Situations like this happen. PWGSC processes over 60,000 contracts a year. We are sued for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes we win and sometimes we don't. In this situation the contract that followed was based on a competitive process awarded in 2009 to Brookfield Global Relocatio

Government Operations committee  In a stable environment in which we don't have inflation and we don't fluctuations in demand—

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. This contract involved three departments. National Defence's share is $28 million; the RCMP portion is $4.2 million; the Treasury Board Secretariat portion is $2.8 million. A settlement with Envoy was reached on October 25, 2013 and—

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. It is, indeed, a very good one. With lapsed funding, when you look at the number, the number doesn't say much. In order to conclude whether it's a legitimate lapse or not, I think we need to look at the program and whether the program is p