Information & Ethics Committee on Aug. 13th, 2008

[The Chair, Liberal, Paul Szabo]

Mr. Goodyear, first, yesterday I did not have a press conference at all. Secondly, if you check the transcript of the media reports on what I said, or the audio tape, my specifics words were “I issued summonses to all those people.” I did not say I had confirmed that they had all been served by the bailiff. Therefore, sir, I think you've misled the people who are listening to this committee about what transpired. You've been using words that suit your purpose, not mine.

So thank you. I issued them and I have not received any report yet from the bailiff as to whether or not people went underground to avoid being served.

[An hon. member]

Some people were...[Inaudible--Editor]

[The Chair, Liberal, Paul Szabo]

Order!

I'm with you 100%.

Now, thank you kindly, colleagues. I'm glad we've got that straightened away.

Now, as is our practice, I want to simply reaffirm this to our witnesses. You have been sworn in. You are appearing before a committee of Parliament. You are protected by parliamentary privilege, which means that nothing that's said here can be held against you in any other forum. We operate on the presumption of honesty, and I thank you all for voluntarily appearing before us today.

Our practice has been to move right to questions, which we will do, and then at the end of the process I will offer to you, if you wish, an opportunity to make a brief closing statement. Do you have any questions? Is that understood? Thank you.

We'll move right to questions now.

Mrs. Redman, please.

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Thank you.

I want to thank all of you for coming. This is obviously a serious issue, and I know we have two former candidates and an official agent, so you recognize how very seriously any candidate has to take the rules of Elections Canada.

Mr. Halicki, I'd like to start with you, if I may. You weren't new to politics in 2006. Is it right that you were a Conservative candidate in the 2004 election?

[Steve Halicki, As an Individual]

That is correct.

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Were you ever asked to participate in this in-and-out scheme at that juncture? I know you were asked and did participate in it in 2006. So were you approached with any similar kind of arrangement in 2004?

[Steve Halicki]

No, there was no similar kind of arrangement or anything close to that in the 2004 campaign.

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

My understanding is that in the 2004 campaign, your campaign spent somewhere under $10,000.

[Steve Halicki]

I don't have that number at hand, but I'm sure it was something of that magnitude.

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Do you recall how much you spent in 2006?

[Steve Halicki]

Offhand, let me guess it to be around.... Including the disallowed deductions, it probably had to be around $60,000, was it?

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

My information is $60,000 to $63,000.

Was the amount of money you received from the Conservative Party as part of the in-and-out scheme about $40,000?

[Steve Halicki]

First of all, I don't think it should be characterized as a scheme, because of the negative spin it puts on it. You might want to call it an arrangement that was.... A business transaction is really what it was. You might want to call it creative, or something like that.

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

It was around $40,000, and actually it was your official agent, I think, who called it creative. As a matter of fact, I think she said it was overly creative. She said, “As a bookkeeper I know that sometimes you have to use creative accounting between two small companies, but I found this move was being a little too creative.” Did she discuss these concerns with you as the candidate?

[Steve Halicki]

Yes. As a matter of fact, we did not agree to participate in the arrangement until she had been satisfied through her inquiries with the party--and I believe it was Susan Kehoe who was the CFO for the party at the time--that this was all on the up-and-up.

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Ms. Soderberg, who was your official agent for the campaign of 2006, told Elections Canada investigators that she had no knowledge whatsoever of Retail Media. Do you know if your campaign dealt directly with Retail Media in any capacity during that campaign?

[Steve Halicki]

To my knowledge, nobody in my campaign dealt with Retail Media directly.

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Were you ever invoiced? Was your campaign ever invoiced directly by Retail Media?

[Steve Halicki]

No, it was not. The only invoice that was ever discussed was one that would have been handled through party headquarters.

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Did you ever discuss the proposed transaction with Mr. Cimaroli or any other official at the Conservative Party when your official agent voiced these concerns about the creativity of this undertaking?

[Steve Halicki]

Rom Cimaroli, for those who may not know, was the campaign manager. It was through Rom that the proposal for this transaction actually came to us. Rom, I guess, got the information from the EDA president, Blake Shreve, who had been approached by the handler of the Toronto candidates. Her name was Georganne Burke.

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Do you have any information or insight, Mr. Halicki, as to why you were approached in this past campaign to participate in this to the tune of $40,000?

[Steve Halicki]

Yes, I do. It's probably not for the reason you might think.

When we finally figured out what it was all about—and we did not agree to participate until we had a thorough understanding of what the mechanics would be—I thought they were doing this to help out the campaign. I thought it would help out the party but would also help us.

You see, we had a lot of what I would call unused expense “headroom”, if you will, and that our bellying up to the bar and helping the party, by their helping us out with the actual expense for the advertising, would allow us to further finance the campaign. York South—Weston is a very poor part of Toronto. That it's probably the second-poorest riding in Ontario is what I'm told. Fundraising is difficult. It was my understanding that this would be an opportunity for the party, then, to be able to help itself that much better, which we did.

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

And it would help itself exactly how?

[Steve Halicki]

By having the additional expenses, we would be able to borrow additional moneys, which we did during the campaign, to buy other kinds of election-related items. You would buy promotional items; it might be buttons or lawn signs or brochures—that kind of thing.