Government Operations committee  Yes, there are many variables. There's whether or not you own the land, and whether the building is a cookie-cutter type of building, or whether it's a special purpose, iconic building such as this. Obviously that factors a lot into the planning process. It depends very much on the procurement method; for example, if it's a building that is planned, designed, and then tendered by the crown versus the crown leasing the space.

Government Operations committee  Maybe I can add something to this. In our system, ministers and their deputy heads are responsible for the administration of assets under their departments. For example, the Minister of Public Works is responsible for office building accommodations. The Minister of Agriculture would be responsible for those buildings that go to support the agricultural program.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Martin, I can't speak for Public Works; I am with the Treasury Board Secretariat. But I certainly can assure you that as far as I am aware, we have no policies or directives or standards—or guidelines, for that matter—that instruct public servants to increase the use of asbestos in their buildings.

Government Operations committee  Hello, Madam Bourgeois. I only want to add to Ms. Burack's statements. You'll recall that I was actually here on Tuesday of this week. We talked about the life cycle of an asset and that there are really four phases, which are planning, acquisition, the use of the asset, and the disposal phase.

Government Operations committee  The reports on plans and priorities, as well as the departmental performance reports, are available to all Canadians. I believe they're tabled in Parliament, in fact.

Government Operations committee  Yes. Departments will be required to report in 2008-09, so it is this fiscal year that is ending. They will be required to report in their departmental performance reports against their green procurement objectives.

Government Operations committee  No. Monsieur Roy, unfortunately I'm not aware of the particular transactions of which you speak, but I can certainly say that since the federal contaminated sites action plan was put in place a number of years ago there has been an extensive effort by all departments, including Transport Canada, Fisheries and Oceans, and National Defence, to put in place an inventory of all their contaminated sites.

Government Operations committee  I would say that there are some properties that have been offered for sale on the market for which there are no takers.

Government Operations committee  We don't capture, in the directory of federal real property, the value of each individual parcel. As you can well imagine, we have in the directory roughly 45,000 buildings owned and leased, and there are about 25,000 properties. The only time you would estimate the market value of a property is when you in fact have a reason to get an appraisal.

Government Operations committee  Ms. Bourgeois, I think the 40 buildings to which you are referring belong to the Department of Public Works and Government Services. These buildings are only some of this department's holdings. We are not in a position to answer the question about the future of the other 30 buildings.

Government Operations committee  I'll take this question. In the DFRP, the directory of federal real property, we have all the properties, with the addresses and locations. We gave you the website. It's in your deck, at the very last—

Government Operations committee  Yes, you can access that.

Government Operations committee  For the most part, yes. One of the responsibilities of a good real property custodian is—

Government Operations committee  ... to be aware of the state of his buildings.

Government Operations committee  ... that take you to other departments' databases.