Public Accounts committee  I'd just like to say thank you for your interest, Mr. Chair.

Public Accounts committee  No, that wasn't the intent at all. It was really the coming into effect of the regulations, etc., and the organizational changes as the centre evolved. Those really were the program issues I was referring to.

Public Accounts committee  Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let me introduce to you, Mr. Chair, and to the committee members Scott Leslie, who is the senior director who has worked very closely with the centre and continues to work very closely on this file with the RCMP. In my opening remarks, Mr. Chair, I wa

Government Operations committee  Yes, exactement. Madam Chair, what we have tried to do as a department is to look at greening opportunities in all our areas, including real property, which is obviously the operation of our buildings, but also specifically with respect to the acquisition function. As the minist

Government Operations committee  That's correct.

Government Operations committee  Madame Chair, the increase in the overall expenditures for the acquisition branch, I think, is in part due to the attribution of full costs, including overhead costs. The actual business volumes and expenditures for the acquisition branch, in terms of incoming work and the size o

Government Operations committee  I believe they would have been attributed--and I'll let the CFO speak to this--to the corporate overhead function. Now a portion of that has been attributed to the acquisition function.

Government Operations committee  An example is the access to information function, which is a corporate function. Each branch benefits a portion of that, so part of those costs are now attributed to the acquisition branch.

Government Operations committee  They would have been part of the total departmental estimates, Madame Chair, but now they are attributed at a much granular level to the acquisition branch.

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for providing me this opportunity to discuss federal contracting services in relation to chapter 4 of the Auditor General's May 2006 report. Mr. Chair, today I'm accompanied by two of the senior directors within the acquisitions branch of Public

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, I can respond to the questions in terms of the procurement. I want to assure the committee, Madam Chair, that the process was entirely competitive. It went through an RFP process. In fact, we had five responses to the bid. We had five compliant bids. It was a very

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, we work very closely with program departments. Building on the comments of the Canada Firearms Centre, they were responding to changing requirements in terms of implementation and timeframes and the system. We work closely with them in terms of identifying what are t

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. May I introduce two of my colleagues who are with me: George Butts, director general, and Scott Leslie, a senior director who has been actively involved with this file in working with the Canada Firearms Centre. I do have a short opening address, Madam