Evidence of meeting #13 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was company.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:10 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, International Strategic Investments
No, this is an agreement that came between Glémaud and our in-house counsel. I didn't even--
4:10 p.m.
NDP
4:10 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, International Strategic Investments
I said finder's fee agreements, right?
4:10 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, International Strategic Investments
Finder's fee agreements are standard, and I can show you those, but a finder's fee agreement is not necessarily this agreement.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
In a normal finder's fee agreement, let's say Jaffer is not even involved, but in your experience in developing other companies—
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
—let's say this individual finds a million dollars to bring to the deal. What would be a percentage?
4:10 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, International Strategic Investments
In a finder's fee agreement, it would say anywhere from 3% to 10%, depending on the project. Typically if you sign a non-circumvention finder's fee agreement, which is standard, it's 3% to 10%.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
So if Mr. Jaffer asked the Government of Canada for $135 million, if he came to you and asked for 10% of that as a finder's fee, would that have been out of line?
4:10 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, International Strategic Investments
You'd have to talk to the company. The company that was getting funded would be the one that would decide, right? But I understand what you're saying.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
You would have been a partner in all of this. If his cut of $135 million worth of government funding would be about 10%, maybe that explains his interest in an offshore bank account.
4:10 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, International Strategic Investments
I'm not going to....
4:10 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, International Strategic Investments
It came from the same place every rumour came from: Mr. Snowdy.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
I think you've been forthright and answered a lot of the questions I had, but--
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
--did Rahim at any time lead you to believe that his connections with the government would be helpful enough to further your business interests or those of your client?
4:10 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, International Strategic Investments
No. We were looking for someone who knew which businesses and which applications should go to which departments, and which projects were viable based on government criteria. Knowing what I know now and what I've been through, I would have done this myself. I certainly would have gone and done the homework and done the research myself. I could have figured out the criteria for any given fund and figured out whether a company had the right criteria to meet the government's requirements.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Frankly, you could have hired the best and highest-paid lobbyists in Ottawa for a lousy $600 an hour, never mind 10% of $100 million--
4:10 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, International Strategic Investments
There's a lesson there to be learned, right?
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
--and they would have been doing it legally and it would have been registered and we wouldn't be having these meetings.
Mr. Gillani, I don't know. You can understand that we find it hard to believe that a business person with your experience wouldn't have some cursory knowledge of the laws surrounding lobbying. You're well educated. You come from a second generation of venture capitalists. Surely you or your partners have approached some level of government in the past for some help with some project, have you not?
4:15 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, International Strategic Investments
We haven't, and that's the point.