Public Accounts Committee on April 9th, 2024

[Nicole Foster]

I believe that all the work is within one contract, or the cloud framework agreement.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Will you undertake to provide the total amount in contracts that Amazon has had with CBSA since 2015? Can you provide that to the committee?

[Nicole Foster]

I believe we could provide that.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Thank you very much.

How many meetings did the Liberal government have with Amazon on ArriveCAN?

[Nicole Foster]

None.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

There were no phone calls.

[Nicole Foster]

By “Liberal government”, do you mean the political level of government?

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Let's parse it out. Who had phone calls, meetings or Zoom calls?

[Nicole Foster]

Nobody on my team, which is the public policy team, had any meetings with any government officials at any level on ArriveCAN.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

You had no meetings with government officials, which means no one who worked for the Government of Canada.

[Nicole Foster]

We had no meetings with anyone who worked for the Government of Canada at the political level or the bureaucratic level.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Okay.

There was no connection between Amazon, or any of its subsidiaries, and the Government of Canada, or any of its departments or agencies. Were there were no conversations?

[Nicole Foster]

Obviously, client engagement conversations took place. Direct work was contracted, so there were interactions at a working level on this work, but there was no lobbying activity on this work.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

There was no lobbying activity as it dealt with ArriveCAN.

[Nicole Foster]

No.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Were any gifts or was any hospitality given by Amazon to government officials?

[Nicole Foster]

I understand the committee has become aware of a backpack that was gifted to both staff and officials who had worked on the project. That is all I know of in terms of gifts. It was a small token of recognition at the end of a large project.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

We became aware of it, but to your previous answer, there was no lobbying activity. Do you not consider gifts branded with your logo to government officials to be lobbying activity?

[Nicole Foster]

No.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

You haven't provided any other hospitality. There were free bags, but no drinks, dinners, coffees or anything of that nature.

[Nicole Foster]

I think in the normal course of business that minimal hospitality would have taken place.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Is that something that you've tracked?

[Nicole Foster]

We do have a corporate policy that outlines the guidelines and training for employees regarding that activity, and yes, we do have a reporting system.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

It's part of your business model that there are some gifts and there is some hospitality for government officials and for the private sector. Is that correct?

[Nicole Foster]

Yes.