Evidence of meeting #109 for Public Accounts in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was dalian.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:20 p.m.
Bloc
Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné Bloc Terrebonne, QC
What is your relationship with Mr. Bernier? Have you known him for a long time?
4:20 p.m.
Business Owner, Dalian Enterprises Inc.
There's no connection.
Obviously, in dealing with the CPC and him going after the leadership during the Andrew Scheer days...that's my awareness of him, but I hadn't met him before, to be honest with you.
4:20 p.m.
Bloc
Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné Bloc Terrebonne, QC
You're saying you ran as a candidate for the People's Party of Canada without knowing the person who was recruiting for the party. Is that right?
4:20 p.m.
Bloc
Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné Bloc Terrebonne, QC
You ran as a candidate for the People's Party of Canada without knowing the key person who was recruiting candidates for the party. You don't know Mr. Bernier. Is that right?
4:20 p.m.
Business Owner, Dalian Enterprises Inc.
No. Of course I knew Max as a leader who was trying to be part of the leadership of the PPC.
4:20 p.m.
Bloc
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Your time is up, Ms. Sinclair‑Desgagné.
It sounds like a no, but the question is whether you met Mr. Bernier.
4:20 p.m.
Business Owner, Dalian Enterprises Inc.
Yes, absolutely. I met him on a couple of occasions.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Thank you, Ms. Sinclair‑Desgagné.
I'm going to pocket all this for relevance at a future committee meeting, when I'm being called on about relevance.
For now, we'll turn to Mr. Desjarlais.
Of course, it's my belief that members have a wide latitude to ask questions. This will be exhibit A.
Mr. Desjarlais, you have the floor.
4:20 p.m.
NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'll just follow up on that last question, and then I'll go to another question if I have enough time.
In relation to your political affiliation, you said you're an active member of the Conservative Party today.
4:20 p.m.
NDP
4:20 p.m.
NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
Have you ever met with or lobbied on behalf of your company any members of the Conservative Party?
4:20 p.m.
NDP
4:20 p.m.
NDP
4:20 p.m.
NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
Have you ever spoken about your company to a government official?
4:20 p.m.
NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
Moving on, then, I'll go back to my previous line of questioning about your knowledge of the execution of contracts, subcontracting and task authorizations.
It's clear from testimony that we heard in prior committee meetings from Botler that they did not provide written consent of their knowledge, and that you executed a subcontract in their name without their knowledge. Is that true?
4:20 p.m.
Business Owner, Dalian Enterprises Inc.
Yes. As far as we're aware, when it comes to Botler, we had a task authorization come from CBSA that was going to GC Strategies, and where it stops is with GC Strategies. They hired Botler as a sub-subcontractor underneath them, so our relationship was really with GC Strategies and Botler's relationship was with GC Strategies.
We didn't have a direct relationship with Botler.
4:20 p.m.
NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
You feel that your relationship with GC Strategies in this case was your level of accountability to the task authorization and not to the other subcontractors of GC Strategies. Do I understand that correctly?