Evidence of meeting #113 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 cbsa.
A video is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
The contract is available on our website. It is our terms and services. It is a click-through contract. It is the same service terms we use with all customers.
5:05 p.m.
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
It is available—
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NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
Do you understand how it's connected to the task authorizations?
5:05 p.m.
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
The terms and services of using cloud services do not change regardless of the customer using those services.
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NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
But what about the task authorizations should they change?
5:05 p.m.
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
The task authorization would be a separate question. You asked about the contract.
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NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
But you wouldn't be privy to that knowledge, would you, on whether or not Dalian submitted an amendment to a task authorization based on your work? You would not know that, correct?
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Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
No.
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NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
Exactly. That's the problem I'm highlighting, Ms. Foster. That is the issue that is present at Dalian and that is the issue that is present for Canadians.
5:05 p.m.
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
I think there's a slight misunderstanding—
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Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
—about how cloud services—
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Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
It is important for you to understand—
5:05 p.m.
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
—how cloud services are actually—
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Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
It should be a question.
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Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Hold on. Let me interject.
Mr. Desjarlais, your time has expired. I listened to you speak, because I wanted to see where you were going with it. As well, the analysts had some questions about your request.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Could you just explain your concern and how you see the committee...?
I don't think I want the witnesses to answer this—
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Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
—but I'd like you to explain your concern, through me, for the analysts.
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NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
Thank you, Chair. It's an important question.
The task authorizations, which the Auditor General says there were amendments to, particularly the task authorizations that were amended by Dalian, may in fact implicate additional work done by Amazon Web Services that was not in the initial task authorization, which was one of the recommendations of the Auditor General.
Speaking to the Auditor General's recommendation, and understanding why amendments to task authorizations were taking place without knowledge of where Dalian came up with the need for those amendments, is important to understanding how the costs could increase. As a customer of Dalian, Amazon Web Services....
The problem is that we don't know the relationship between the work they had done, the task authorizations and Dalian. I think this is incredibly important. I think we need information related to the amendments of the task authorizations and their applicability to the work of Amazon as a customer of Dalian.