Declaration of Emergency Committee on May 3rd, 2022

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Do you have the list of names that the RCMP submitted to the financial institutions?

[Isabelle Jacques]

No.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

All right, thank you.

Now I'll go to Mr. MacKillop and ask him the same questions.

Mr. MacKillop, do you think the RCMP alone designated persons to the financial institutions for seizure purposes?

[Barry MacKillop]

Thank you for your question.

I think the RCMP played a coordination role. The act…

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Pardon me for interrupting, Mr. MacKillop, but we don't have a lot of time.

Who do you think designated the persons?

[Barry MacKillop]

I think any police force could designate persons, but I think the RCMP coordinated the list that was given to the financial institutions.

I think you'd the better off asking the RCMP that question.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Thanks for the advice. That's what I'll do.

Do you have the list of designated persons whose bank accounts were to be seized or frozen?

[Barry MacKillop]

No, sir.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Thank you.

Now I'd like to go back to Ms. Jacques

Ms. Jacques, you said you regularly received lists from the financial institutions. No names appeared on those lists, but the amounts seized and other information did.

How many of those lists did you receive under the order?

[Isabelle Jacques]

I don't know.

Considering how few days were involved, I'd say there were perhaps six.

I'll be able to provide the committee with the exact answer once I've done my research.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

I'd appreciate that, Ms. Jacques.

We can say there were approximately six because there was roughly one a day.

[Isabelle Jacques]

We didn't receive any lists in the first days. As I said, the list wasn't long, but it included the amounts seized and the account balances.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

So the list included the money that was in the account and the amount frozen.

[Isabelle Jacques]

We were given the total amount, but not the total for each of the accounts. We had no idea of the value of each account. For example, we were told there were 13 accounts and a total of $1 million.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Did each financial institution send you a report like that?

[Isabelle Jacques]

No, we received it through the Canadian Bankers Association.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Is Desjardins a member of that association?

[Isabelle Jacques]

No, but Desjardins also sent us information. I think it did so once, but I'll have to…

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Would you please check that, Ms. Jacques?

[Isabelle Jacques]

Yes, because I don't want to give you any false information.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Thank you; that's good of you.

Ms. Jacques, what did you do with those reports?

[Isabelle Jacques]

The reports were definitely forwarded internally to the deputy minister. There was also aggregate data. However, I don't know if those reports were forwarded outside the department.

Mr. Brazeau, can you answer the question?

[Julien Brazeau]

Yes, aggregate data was forwarded to the Privy Council, which aggregated information based on what was happening with respect to the emergency measures.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

If there were no names on the lists and no one knew how much money had been seized in each account, what was the point of aggregating data?

[Julien Brazeau]

It gave us an idea of the size of the amounts that had been frozen and of the total amounts in the accounts that had been frozen.