Information & Ethics committee  I can answer that question. To my knowledge, there was no interference by anyone in the awarding of the contracts or leases.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you for your question. Regarding putting the leases into effect, there is no notion of emergency per se. That applies only to contracts, as my colleague Lorenzo pointed out earlier, but for the lease signings and the lease improvements included in the leases, there was

Information & Ethics committee  The PSPC leasing agents in the Quebec region negotiated by mutual agreement with Mr. Guay for the lease of his lands and buildings near the border crossing.

Information & Ethics committee  The negotiations were conducted by mutual agreement between the department's employees in the Quebec region and Mr. Guay.

Information & Ethics committee  To my knowledge, there was no interference by any office with the members of our department's team to have the location chosen be the one we are talking about. Our experts took into account the needs of our colleagues at the Canada Border Services Agency, the Royal Canadian Moun

Information & Ethics committee  No. The amounts spent did not reach that threshold, far from it. My colleague can tell you the exact threshold above which the minister's approval is needed in connection with a lease.

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely. It existed well before.

Information & Ethics committee  I do not have the exact value of the lease with the hotel. On the question of use, the hotel was in use the last time I was on site, a few weeks ago. However, I cannot tell you what the situation was for the entire term of the lease.

Information & Ethics committee  As my colleague said, the leases signed with Mr. Guay total $28.13 million. Of that amount, $13.4 million comes from the Canada Border Services Agency for the land and the adjacent land.

Information & Ethics committee  That money is not just for the lease, it also covers the leasehold improvements my colleague spoke of in English, that is, the improvements required in order to meet our client's operational needs.

Information & Ethics committee  I am going to come back to your first question, on how we made sure the price paid for the location in Saint-Bernard‑de‑Lacolle was reasonable. The department has its own leasing and property management agents, who do an initial review of the file. In this specific case, our cli