Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I recognize that nine or ten people is not a small number, but $200,000 for renovations? What are we paying for? What are we getting here? Thank you.

The Minister of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, I suppose there was some restructuring within MAA, but a lot of the improvements included partition installation and the associated mechanical and electrical work that goes with putting up those walls. I do not know all of the details. We would have to get that from Public Works, but for the amount of space they are dealing with, it is within what we could reasonably expect.

Excuse me, could I have some order in the House? Mr. Bell.

So for the $200,000 price tag to build these nine offices, I am assuming that we took space that was not previously office space and turned it into office space. Is that right?

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, the space the MAA is expanding into was occupied by the Audit Bureau, but it had to be reconfigured for MAA's needs. I do not have all the detail of what the changes would be there. Thank you.

Mr. Bell.

So we had some office space that the auditors were in. We brought in folks from MAA and I guess we did some painting and some rewiring and it cost us $200,000. Can the Minister tell me where it is?

Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, it is on the third floor of the Precambrian Building.

Mr. Bell.

Well, as far as wiring, I think the auditors were using lights and computers and these kinds of things, so I am wondering if there is some sort of special equipment that required some strange, hard wiring configuration that the MAA folks are now using that these other folks were not.

Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, I cannot speak to what unique needs MAA may have, but I think every unit's needs in any organization are different and you have to configure the space to fit that need.

Mr. Bell.

All joking aside, this is office space here. I guess the public wants some assurance that this is not leather couches and cherry-wood desks and on and on. To take nine existing office spaces, to do nothing but change the crew of folks in there, and come up with a $200,000 price tag in a building we do not own seems crazy to me, but maybe it is just me.

The Minister of Finance.

Mr. Chairman, it is difficult to just be able to explain exactly where the $200,000 is spent. I am not sure that there were exactly nine offices that nine individuals from MAA could move into. That obviously was not the case. There were some partitions that had to be changed around and installed. There was some mechanical and electrical work that had to be done. In addition to that, the furniture had to be purchased and so on, but I do not think it was leather couches and teak furniture.

In addition, MAA will relinquish some of its space on the ninth floor and move some of its operations down to the third floor, which is where these renovations have taken place. Thank you.

Mr. Bell.

I guess I will just leave this with two comments. I hope when MAA moves out of this space that they are relinquishing on the ninth floor, or wherever it was, we are not going to spend a bunch of money to refurbish that for whoever else is moving in there. Let's keep in mind that this did not come forward in the business planning process. If we had to shuffle around some partitions and make do for a little while until we could bring it forward and committee could have a look at this, that would have been appreciated.

I think this supplementary budget is for unforeseen things that have an emergent nature. This to me, obviously I have not been in to see the office space, but I cannot imagine it was so brutal that this was an emergency. Thank you.

Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, all I can add is, other than to say that it is difficult to sit here and judge what is happening in a building away from here, but MAA had a number of new positions coming in. They looked at the space they were occupying. They reconfigured some of their needs. They are giving up some of their space on the ninth floor and moving some of their people down to the third floor. They are doing renovations on the third floor. It had been occupied by the Audit Bureau. There were some walls put up, partitions. There was some mechanical work done, some electrical work done. I assume there was some finishing work done. There was some furniture purchased, and the estimate is $200,000. I cannot say anything more than that and I am sure MAA would welcome someone to come and have a look at their new quarters.

We will be giving up, as I said, some of the space on the ninth floor, so the lease for that space has been given up. Thank you.

Mr. Roland.