Public Accounts committee  We use social media. There are some tweets. There is some limited promotion of sales through government channels. We don't purchase advertising.

Public Accounts committee  Just recently we conducted public opinion research about both the user and the non-user community. It's been published. We're using it to inform decision-making. We haven't done it until now, and we would be very careful about using taxpayer funding or raising our commission rate

Public Accounts committee  Yes. The difference between sales and commissions, which is roughly $50 million, is either returned to the departments that owned the assets or, in very rare cases, paid directly to the receiver general.

Public Accounts committee  It's close to 100,000 people. Actually, I believe the number is 94,000.

Public Accounts committee  The vast majority of people visit the site for personal use because, like you, they want to buy goods. Still, a number of people do so with the intention of buying, reselling or using these goods for commercial purposes. About a quarter of users report having a commercial interes

Public Accounts committee  At the start of the next fiscal year, we want to introduce some features that would allow us to post the sale and, I hope, improve our financial results. This would include improving the transparency of auction sales, so that people can see the price that is winning.

Public Accounts committee  The program is fully funded by cost-based commissions. Our program is effective enough to allow us to make reinvestments, and we are very cautious about the funds we have. Commissions are overseen by the Treasury Board. So you can't just write a cheque. However, we have some fle

Public Accounts committee  For the fiscal year that just ended. GCSurplus sold roughly $60 million in products, and the program's operating costs were just under $12 million.

Public Accounts committee  I can't really speak to the accounting. I can speak to the sale process, and I'm pretty confident that we're getting market value for the assets. I can't really speak to book value. I don't know the accounting practices in the different departments.

Public Accounts committee  Generally, no; we use the gcsurplus.ca website, not Kijiji. It's similar to Kijiji, but it's not Kijiji. The in-person auctions don't occur for the federal government. A decade or more ago, people would come to a site and make closed-envelope bids in blind bidding. That's how i

Public Accounts committee  No, we turn our inventory over quickly. We had 29,000 transactions last year. These are busy places. Assets come in and out quite quickly.

Public Accounts committee  No, there are conflict of interest guidelines, so I myself have never purchased anything, and the closer one is to the operation of GCSurplus, the more one is restricted. Also, the folks who handle the assets, who physically deal with them, aren't involved in determining the wi

Public Accounts committee  That particular vehicle I couldn't speak to, but I could speak to the sale of nearly new vehicles, which does happen. There are a number of reasons that these sales might occur. A typical example would be that Transport Canada has test vehicles, to test for emissions and road saf

Public Accounts committee  Not all vehicles meet the requirements of their programs. There are specific vehicles that they buy for specific purposes.

Public Accounts committee  I couldn't say.