Government Operations committee  That's an interesting question and I'm sorry I didn't address it the first time around. We did not address it explicitly, but we did address it implicitly by revising our inflation projections. Labour shortages are one factor that can lead to higher inflation and we have revised

Government Operations committee  We looked at the cost, and the potential cost, for completing these two polar icebreakers, but we didn't look at the broader issue of availability of qualified labour and whether government policies are currently sufficient to address labour shortages that we see in the country.

Government Operations committee  In our cost estimate, we assume that the Bank of Canada monetary policy will ensure that inflation returns to its target range of 2% in the medium term by successively increasing interest rates, but if that were to not be the case, the cost would quite clearly be higher if inflat

Government Operations committee  The word systemic has a certain connotation in Quebec, so I won't go down that road. However, I do see a clear pattern happening: whenever a major procurement project is involved, the initial cost estimates are significantly lower than the subsequent cost revisions. Is it a rec

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Ms. Vignola. It is clear that breakdowns or interruptions in the supply chain can impact the delivery schedule of vessels of this magnitude and can also lead to cost increases. We can already see that supply chain disruptions have had some impact on inflation. This h

Government Operations committee  There are two main factors. First of all, there is the simplification of project management, because the government would be dealing with one shipyard, rather than dealing with two partners that you have to monitor. Then, the aspect that is probably the most important is the ec

Government Operations committee  When we're looking at expenditures in the dozens of billions of dollars, following the rules 75% of the time, or auditing a smaller proportion of expenditures, is increasing the risk that the amounts will not be fully traceable. I'd have to look more into that specific issue, but

Government Operations committee  I don't have views, per se, because we looked at the cost of procuring these ships. We didn't look at the economic spinoffs, the economic impacts and the benefits, or the number of jobs created. For that reason, it's very difficult for me to have an opinion as to whether these nu

Government Operations committee  I would probably ask Eskandar if he can jump in here and explain how we calculated the delays.

Government Operations committee  Yes, that is right. Some of the project management costs—in fact, the vast majority of project management costs—are costs incurred by government departments that relate to the management of their projects. I don't know the extent to which these are incremental costs versus costs

Government Operations committee  Thanks, Chris. If that were to be true, we would probably be looking at slightly higher design costs.

Government Operations committee  I don't know, honestly.

Government Operations committee  Design costs are already quite high at $820 million, so I'm not sure they could go that much higher, even if there were two different design teams.

Government Operations committee  We have put a tool online for parliamentarians such as yourself to look at the personnel costs in the public service by department. You can see the evolution over the last several years of total personnel costs and FTEs. We don't, however, have such a tool for contractors and c

Government Operations committee  Maybe they're auditing recipients of grants and contributions. That could be why they are giving out contracts—or it could be the internal audit and evaluation functions. These are possibilities, but no certainties.