Government Operations committee  Madam Thibault and Madam Chair, the issue of enforcing standards is very important, because everybody has reasons for being special, and different, and so on and so forth. We've done two things. In the past, if a department said they wanted more space than the standard or they wanted a better fit-up, as long as they had a budget to do that, they went ahead and did it, so we really couldn't control that.

Government Operations committee  Certainly. Obviously moving to big information systems is a big investment, and it's complex. We have been working on reorganizing, reorienting, how we do our business before we launch into a new systems investment. So that's been happening over the last couple of years. As Bruce Sloan has pointed out, we do have information it's difficult to get at sometimes.

Government Operations committee  I'm going to ask Tim McGrath to go through that for you.

Government Operations committee  I think often the newest members to an organization see what has happened over a long period of time, which we've all assumed is the way to do it, then seize an opportunity to improve it. Certainly the issue of having standardized space and so forth means it will be faster and probably better.

Government Operations committee  We could look at it. You know, it's one of those things that—

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Auditor General has observed, we have been moving quite aggressively over the past year to lengthen the terms of the leases we sign in order to get better value. We've done this, to some extent, using our own judgment, if you like, because often departments say to us, “I'm not going to need that space for very long.

Government Operations committee  No, it wasn't tendered, Madam. The reason is that we received an unsolicited proposal by an owner of the property, Minto. In looking at how we obtain space, there are specific preconditions under which we may consider an unsolicited proposal. Quite often these are advantageous to the Crown, and there is no reason to reject them simply because they're unsolicited.

Government Operations committee  I wish I had the wisdom to solve this one. Madam Thibault, look, the fact is that we do 500 leases a year. We are now discussing some cases that, even though they're few, are important in terms of the principles that we might use to improve things. I don't want to minimize that, but I also want to put it in context, because there's a lot going on.

Government Operations committee  Yes, I believe we have on file the official request in writing from the minister of the agency in Quebec. We can probably table that for you.

Government Operations committee  Sure, yes.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Fraser.

Government Operations committee  I would have to say it is more a case of trying to ensure that by switching from where we are today--an annual funding mechanism--the government is not going to introduce complexities or some other problems in its overall accounting. I think that's the issue the Comptroller General is trying to address, but if you wanted to know from our point of view, we would be in favour of portfolio accounting, and we are working with the secretariat on that basis.

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, the decision did cost the Crown money. It was unfortunate. However, from our point of view as a service provider, we received a legitimate request from the minister in charge of that agency. Our department, the officials at the time, responded to that request in a straightforward manner and satisfied the wishes of the client.

Government Operations committee  From time to time there are reasons for clients, for departments, to change their minds and request that they not move. We've had that in very significant cases. The Department of Agriculture faced a crisis with the mad cow situation. They didn't want to spend money moving while they had to fight an operational requirement.

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, we are providing a real estate service, which really involves long-term considerations to determine best value. It's not an annual consideration. From our point of view, a long-term funding envelope is by far the better solution. As well, when we look at the anomalies of annual funding, it causes a great deal of difficulty to try to maintain the portfolio as it should be and also to realize the theoretical business cases that we put forward, so our point of view is that we are certainly in favour of accrual appropriation and accrual accounting.