Evidence of meeting #108 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was contract.
A video is available from Parliament.
11:15 a.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
You mean net to me.
Exactly. It's gross, less expenses and less tax.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
I understand.
In terms of politicians, have any elected officials ever approached you to negotiate a contract?
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Have any politicians or members of Parliament in the past approached you to do a contract?
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Your involvement.... Let's understand Coredal Systems for a second. Explain to me that relationship and your involvement with that company.
11:15 a.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
We had no relationship at all with Coredal. We purchased it in April 2015 and subsequently took three to four months to do a name change for the CRA and PSPC, to absorb those corporate requirements.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Had Coredal been a government contractor in the past?
11:15 a.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
I believe so, yes.
We never worked with Coredal, ever, especially not prior to April 2015.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Was there involvement by you or GC Strategies prior to 2015? How long have you been doing work for the government? I guess that's what I'm trying to get at. How long have you, besides GC Strategies, been contracted?
11:15 a.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
It was 2007 when I first started being in the IT [Technical difficulty—Editor] services to the government.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Do you recall how much you've received overall from the Government of Canada, including those years?
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Yes, I mean how many contracts and how much money you've made over that period of time.
11:15 a.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
It's probably close to a hundred contracts in totality from 2007 to 2023.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Was that process similar to the way you're doing it now? You arrange a contract, and then you subcontract to service providers and skill sets. Is that how it works?
11:15 a.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
Yes, I've been working in the IT staffing industry since 2007, like the other 636 firms that are out there.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Do you know if that's normal practice in industry and in other governments as well?
11:20 a.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
Yes. I can't speak to other industries, but in the federal government, where I've been working since 2007, I can say that that's normal practice.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
In your deliberations in coming here today.... I mean, it seems that it's been very tough on you and your family.
What is it that people perceive that you're trying to hide? What is it that is concerning you here?
11:20 a.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
It's actually just how this whole thing is being conducted. It's not about information or how it's being shared, or even about asking the questions.
Anybody in our industry or anybody in the 5,000 IT staffing firms employing 81,000 and contributing $10 billion to the economy knows exactly what our staff...and what our business model is. People who are misinformed and misled are the ones up in arms about understanding this. There's a cost of doing business, and 636 other firms have the same business processes as we do.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
When ArriveCAN came to be and the government was looking at trying to put this together, did you approach them, or did someone approach you?
11:20 a.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
The first time I knew that this was going to be a pandemic response contract, I was reached out to by PSPC. They were the ones who informed me that there was going to be a contract issued to us. It was a precontract email, saying, “Just so you know, GC Strategies has been selected for a contract award of $2.35 million.”
11:20 a.m.
Liberal