Public Accounts committee  Mr. Williams and Mr. Chairman, we operate under the accounting principles of the Government of Canada. If your recommendation is finally to investigate it and follow it up by the Comptroller General and we are instructed to do so, we'll be happy to do so.

Public Accounts committee  I think we'll table the correspondence, which will be clear as to why people wanted to stay.

Public Accounts committee  You mean when we declined to go ahead?

Public Accounts committee  Well, I suppose we haven't been very convincing, but we're trying.

Public Accounts committee  I might just say that it's so very hard for a government department. We don't have a financial profit number or some other way to judge, so we try different ways to explain some of the things we do and what the useful things are.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, we do.

Public Accounts committee  We hoped to have it in the hands of certainly deputy ministers and members of Parliament--

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, at any one time we would have demands from clients that are not met. When an opportunity becomes available there's a question of which is the best suited for this to be satisfied. We try to match up, as close as possible, the client's needs and its particular priorities, how long its been waiting, or other stresses it's going under with a particular opportunity.

Public Accounts committee  And it's improving, yes.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair and Mr. Lake, a big part of the issue is fit-up costs, which is exactly what you pointed to in the chapter. The fit-up costs are shared between ourselves and departments. Our systems have the costs we spend, while the parts a department spends are in the department's own numbers.

Public Accounts committee  It's traditionally how responsibilities have been split. In fact, the departments are approaching us and saying, look, we don't like the fact that we have to figure out what to fit up. Public Works, since you're the experts in real property, why don't you give us a turnkey—you know, here's the floor space and the layouts we need, then let's agree on that.

Public Accounts committee  It's really just in the discussion stage right now. We haven't got any kind of agreement on it. All I can say is that when we do have something, we will try to table it with you. There's no paper or anything like that; there's just simply a sense that this is the right thing to do.

Public Accounts committee  To answer the question you've posed, we know the availability in the market because we are operating in this market over a very long period of time. We are very well aware of all the properties that are available and coming available. We have had outside research done on what properties are available.

Public Accounts committee  It is extremely important. What we do is look at construction prices, for example, when we're looking at the own or build option. Then we apply a risk premium in terms of potential delays or escalation in prices of steel, and so on. We have a formula that we are constantly updating in terms of real experiences to try to assess the prices we might have to pay.

Public Accounts committee  We do a very thorough risk analysis. In another part of the report, I think the Auditor General has acknowledged that. I believe the kinds of risk the Auditor General is referring to—and perhaps I shouldn't speak for the Auditor General—are more general, such as the landlord's risk, the legal risks, and so on, through the life of a lease.