Senator Dagenais: Delays and bureaucracy are two factors that sometimes slow down the procurement of equipment for our Armed Forces. Those delays have cost Canadian taxpayers a fortune since this government came to power. Why doesn’t Canada have a procurement department exclusively for Department of Defence requirements, like Britain does, with experts who know what they’re doing, instead of sometimes granting contracts to consultants?

Hon. Jean-Guy Dagenais: Hello, minister. In 2020, Public Services and Procurement Canada acquired a parking lot in Old Montreal to build a new building for the Federal Court and its prosecutors. That lot cost $7 million for 150,000 square feet of office space, plus the construction bill. Can you justify this project to relocate the Federal Court, which is already located in another building in Old Montreal? It certainly doesn’t make sense, especially at a time when the President of the Treasury Board is calling for $15 billion in cuts to government spending.

Hon. Jean-Guy Dagenais: I’d like to ask a question as a Montrealer. When are you going to put the Guy-Favreau Complex in Montreal up for sale? There seem to be a few problems with this building.

Hon. Jean-Guy Dagenais: Minister, on Monday, Caroline Maynard, the Information Commissioner of Canada, accused your government and its institutions of systemically obstructing access to information requests. Let’s not forget those purchases of equipment and vaccines when you were the minister responsible. There are also a lot of questions about certain contracts awarded by your new department.

Did you feel you were the target of the commissioner’s accusation, and what will you do to establish some degree of transparency?