Government Operations Committee on April 21st, 2010

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Chair, Mr. Glémaud does not have the right to remain silent at this committee. He doesn't have the right to pick and choose which questions he will answer. We can compel him to answer those questions through the power of the parliamentary committee. He doesn't get to choose, and I hope you will rule to that effect and get him to tell us the names of those three companies.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Mr. Glémaud, Mr. Martin is right, so you will have to tell us the names of the three companies.

Does the entire committee agree that he needs to answer that question?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Okay, Mr. Glémaud, you have to.

[Patrick Glémaud]

I do not recall these names.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Patrick Glémaud]

Madam Chair, if I can--

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Mr. Glémaud....

Order, order.

You know, this is a contempt of Parliament. Therefore I would suggest you do not act in that manner and--

[Patrick Glémaud]

Madam Chair--

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

No, let me finish.

Act responsibly. If you know the names.... You had two names, and I guess they are asking for the third name. If you're not supplying us....

I will ask you, do you have the three names of the proposals that you submitted, the executive summary that you submitted to Mr. Jean? Yes or no?

[Patrick Glémaud]

No.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

That means you do not remember who you submitted, or what names were....

Just one second. I have an issue here.

They are asking that you then submit it. We will make a request that you undertake to supply the names to us.

[Patrick Glémaud]

Madam Chair, I am not in contempt. Madam Chair, this matter was referred to the commissioner.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

You do not rule. You do not--

[Patrick Glémaud]

But Madam Chair, may I insert? You asked me a question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Order.

Mr. Glémaud, this is a parliamentary committee. You are going to be in contempt if you do not supply the information that has been requested by the total committee. It's not one side asking for it. It has been a request. If you can't, then you undertake to supply that. And that is final.

Madame Coady first, and then you, Mr. Martin.

Yes, Madame Coady.

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I'm sure the clock was stopped, so if Mr. Glémaud does not remember, perhaps, Mr. Jaffer, you do. There were three submissions to Mr. Jean, the parliamentary secretary to the minister responsible for infrastructure. There were three submissions.

There's been a discrepancy from Mr. Glémaud saying it was executive summaries. Mr. Jean says they were full proposals. My question to you is, may I have the names of the three proposals submitted to Mr. Jean, please?

[Rahim Jaffer]

As I said from the beginning, one of the things I tried to do always in any of the dealings we had with any members of the government was to recuse myself from anything that would either ask for information or request anything. I would not be involved with that, just simply because I was aware that there may be a conflict. So I wasn't involved in those submissions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

Mr. Martin, and then I have the last word from Mr. Lukiwski.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

The only thing I'd like to add to my point of order from before, Madam Chair, is that you set a strict timeframe. I would say 24 hours would be a reasonable amount of time for Mr. Glémaud to get home and look up those names....

Even though I don't believe you for a minute, buddy. I don't believe you as far as I can throw you.

If you could put a strict timeframe that he gets that information back to us, I would ask that the clerk circulate that to us immediately upon receipt of that information.

[Patrick Glémaud]

Based on the innuendo you've been raising you would like to hang me, right?

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Mr. Glémaud, nobody asked you to respond. Thank you.

Mr. Lukiwski, you have two minutes if you wish.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Thank you.

We've heard a lot of testimony and a lot of back and forth today, but I think there's an elephant in the room--I think Mr. Martin brought it up.

Mr. Jaffer, do you believe or understand that your actions have tarnished the reputation of politicians from all parties? Do you believe that to be true? Do you get that?

[Rahim Jaffer]

I think that's quite a statement, Mr. Lukiwski. I know I've maybe made some mistakes. I've taken responsibility for those mistakes. I've tried to do the best job I can embarking on a private sector endeavour. I think you've known me long enough to know that I've never asked for anything from any member of this government in trying to do that.

I'm quite surprised and shocked that I'm being treated in this capacity, given that I've always tried to respect what we established when we were elected together with the Accountability Act and the Lobbying Act. Now it seems that despite some of these allegations, we're being completely hung out to dry, without any real evidence that we've done anything wrong.

I'm looking forward to the commissioner of lobbying doing her thorough review and responding as to whether or not we've done anything wrong. As we said at the outset, this is something she is best suited to deal with. I'm confident that in the behaviour and actions I've tried to take with my business, I've been following the highest standards possible without causing any conflict for anybody.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

I have a final quick question.

You mentioned that the commissioner of lobbying has contacted you. Is that a correct statement? Are you cooperating with the commissioner of lobbying as we speak?