Government Operations Committee on April 28th, 2010

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

Mr. Martin, your time has expired.

You have just a moment for a short answer.

[Nazim Gillani]

As I said, my father had some dealings with the government based on his involvement, and I learned a little bit from him as far as process goes, but I deny you'll find anything with my name on it with any government body anywhere. I have never done it. I didn't know about the Lobbying Act, and to be quite honest, as a venture capitalist, government takes too much time and too much effort. It's easier for me to sell a deal to a VC than it is to go and try to get the necessary work done from a government body. That's honest.

I found a guy here who said, hey, he'd deal with all that for me, nothing underhanded, nothing unduly...or whatever. I had a guy who would go deal with it, so I wouldn't have to. What a wonderful deal.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

Ms. Mendes, we'll turn it over to you for five minutes.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Gillani. I would advise you to put your little earpiece back on.

Let us come back to Wright Tech. We all find it a bit difficult to believe that Mr. Jaffer and Green Power Generation would not earn anything for the work they were doing for you or for any other client. If the government had provided funding for those projects, how did you intend to reward or compensate Mr. Jaffer and Mr. Glémaud for their work?

[Nazim Gillani]

First of all, as far Green Rite is concerned, I'm sure you've read the reports that say Mr. Wright of Green Rite has said he never did anything with anybody and, as well, doesn't acknowledge any lobbying as such. But with us, originally, I thought we had a finder's fee agreement completed with Green Rite, and that's all I thought we had; my understanding now is that we don't even have that. There was an acknowledgment between our in-house counsel and a gentleman at Green Rite who was dealing with their legal...and we don't even have that agreement. We don't even have a finder's fee agreement.

Had something happened with Mr. Wright's statements to the press.... I assume he's being honest and forthcoming. I'd suggest to you that Mr. Wright, if he did get anything out of the government, wasn't going to pay anybody, and certainly not me, but I was unaware of anything outside the fed response that we got from Mr. Glémaud. That's the last thing I saw.

I'm going to provide you with that correspondence as well, so you'll see exactly what I saw. If you saw what I saw, and nothing after that, and didn't hear about anything from Green Rite or Mr. Jaffer, how would I know any different?

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Let us now deal with another of your clients, Mr. Philip Roe, of SolTerra Capital, who stated that you introduced him to Mr. Jaffer in September of last year. Did you have any specific reason to introduce them to each other?

[Nazim Gillani]

You said SolTerra?

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Yes, SolTerra Capital.

[Nazim Gillani]

And Phil Roe?

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Yes.

[Nazim Gillani]

I don't even remember that. Is this in my correspondence, my timeline?

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

It was Mr. Phil Roe who declared that you introduced him to Mr. Jaffer.

[Nazim Gillani]

Maybe at a social event? Or what? I don't know.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

That's what we're asking. Was it—

[Nazim Gillani]

Okay, but where are you seeing this, though?

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Phil Roe declared this. He's the one who declared that you introduced him to Mr. Jaffer.

[Nazim Gillani]

He may have come. I don't know if he was at the luncheon at La Castile originally. He may have been, but I don't recall that at all. I could certainly check and get back to you.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

I'm going to share the rest of my time with my colleague Ms. Coady.

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

I have a couple of quick questions.

You talk about, on November 3, “Jaffer email requesting GPG - ISI contract - don't know why”. So you had to submit it back on November 3. Do you know anything further from that? You also said that he requested the RLP—the company I referred to earlier—non-disclosure agreement. Do you have any further details to add to that?

[Nazim Gillani]

Again, on the RLP stuff, you'll see exactly what I saw.

As far as correspondence goes, yes, we signed an NDA based on the company's request and provided them with that, and then we went ahead and started to talk to VCs about what RLP's requirements were, unaware that anything was done with RLP and the government in any way, shape, or form.

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

But Mr. Jaffer did ask for that, a copy of your contract, which he indicated in a previous committee meeting he didn't...he'd had no relationship. So he definitely had the contract, because you had given it to him on November 3, right?

[Nazim Gillani]

Okay. Sorry. I'm losing you.

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

Okay. On November 3, according to your timelines, you said “Jaffer email requesting GPG - ISI—I guess that's your company—“contract - don't know why.”

[Nazim Gillani]

So the GPG-ISI contract is the one that they signed.

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

Right.

Mr. Jaffer said in the previous meeting that he had no relationship. That's what I'm trying to establish.