Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is a very good question the honourable Member is asking. I have asked the same question of the department. When we found out last year that certain projects the department, with their client departments have estimated, and we approve in the House, through the budget session different projects, and when the tendering process is concluded we are finding out that in many cases the estimate put forward by the Department of Public Works, the budgets are coming in lower than what the public tendering process is. I have asked the department to look into this situation. I am told that we have to look at the boom in other parts of the country.

In the Nunavut area, there is a lot of construction going on in preparation for Nunavut. There are a lot of projects out there. The workforce and contracts that we have, there is a lot of work, there are a lot of people who go there. I am told that in Alberta there has been a boom in their economic development, so there is requirement for a lot of trade people to go into Alberta. As a result, our estimation is that somehow or other, the mechanical part of all these different buildings is coming in higher than we estimated. There is a trend that the department is able to identify. We are finding out that, yes, our estimates are a lot lower than what is in the market. It is a problem that we have identified.

As a result, it is causing some glitches in our system. The Department of Public Works and Services, has client departments that we service. The budget they have through their system is approved through this House. Whenever a project comes in low, if our estimate is low and the bid prices are high, then we have to go back to the department and ask them if there is any way they could find within their system, additional dollars to top off the difference. It takes some time to do that. In many cases, we had to go back to the drawing board and retender. This year, yes, there are more than the usual tenders that we find ourselves adjusting throughout the summer.

Normally, the way the process is within our department, if our estimates are right and the bids are coming in, usually the competitive process is to see whether the project we have approved, that the bids come in lower than our projected costs, then, we are in the black and we can have some leeway. In many cases, we are coming in way below the bid prices and we have to make adjustments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.