Evidence of meeting #117 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vote.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Executive Officer, AggregateIQ
I am the chief executive officer.
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
When you receive a contract from a client, whether you're working directly or indirectly with a client, who would analyze that contract?
Tell me if I'm wrong. You would be requested to do some work. It would probably involve engineering or computer programming, or whatever, so that would go to Mr. Silvester. He would analyze it and tell you, “Look, Zack, I think we can do this work.” You would get the scope of work involved, and you would respond. You would respond with, “Yes, we can do it. This is our price.”
Is that correct?
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
What was your role, then? When you say “for the most part”, I want to know what your role in the company was.
Chief Executive Officer, AggregateIQ
On the logistics side, it would be looking at tools, what things ought to cost, what the comparables are, doing the market research, understanding the needs of the particular clients, and then the needs of the particular users, to promote using the product or the service thereafter, and—
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
So you were the person who would be dealing directly with the client.
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
When you're asked to do some work and you have the scope of work, do you analyze what the value of that work is, or what the purpose of that work is, and how that work would be used, or is it simply that whatever a client asks you to do, you just fulfill that request, and here is your price?
I asked you earlier in my questioning if you were aware of work being done in Ukraine. Now, Mr. Silvester has said that you have done work in Trinidad, and you have done work in Nigeria. When you get a contract to do work, whether directly or indirectly, do you analyze the contract to see where that work is going to happen, or is that something you don't think about?
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
When I asked you whether you are doing work in Ukraine, you said no. You have no employees in Ukraine doing any work. Is that true?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bob Zimmer
Mr. Saini, you're a minute over, so I have to stop you. Those are great questions, though.
Mr. Gourde, you have seven minutes.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lévis—Lotbinière, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Massingham, I want to congratulate you since your company does offer its services internationally. Canada is a small country, but you have still developed a tool that enables your company to offer services to a larger country, Great Britain, and perhaps elsewhere as well. You can tell us that.
Your business is a model of success in terms of marketing. Surely there are companies in Great Britain that could have offered the same services as yours. How were you able to break into the market in Great Britain and offer your services there?
You must have stood out in order to win those contracts. So you must have offered something extra to your clients, some added value.
Chief Executive Officer, AggregateIQ
I think we have been extraordinarily lucky in terms of the opportunities we've had. We've worked with some really great people who have gone from campaign to campaign. It's really through word of mouth that we get our introductions. The campaigning community is a very small community, as you all know. We have put together a very good team that delivers very good work and results for our clients.
Aside from word of mouth, we don't really do any other advertising. Particularly in the U.K., I would point out that we don't have any clients in the U.K. right now.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lévis—Lotbinière, QC
So it was word of mouth and contacts.
Among those contacts, was there anyone from the U.K. who might had work terms in Canada, during Canadian elections, and perhaps their recommendations helped you break into that market?
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lévis—Lotbinière, QC
You just said the exact opposite, that it was through contacts and word of mouth. Those people had to know you to know that your services had some added value that they must have needed.
You said earlier that it was programs and that it was relatively simple: names, addresses, telephone numbers and “yes” or “no” answers to questions such as “are you in favour or opposed”.
That currently exists in all democratic countries at election time.
In the services you offer, however, there was something extra that they needed. That “extra” was recommended or you went to see them directly. What was the “extra”?
Chief Executive Officer, AggregateIQ
It's simply the hard work. The reason I said no was that I could not think of an individual we had worked with in Canada. Had you asked about someone we had worked with in America, I would have said yes, because the number of people and the scope of what we have helped with there are much different from what we have worked on here in Canada.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lévis—Lotbinière, QC
Are U.S. software tools more advanced than those elsewhere in the world?
Did you have access to or did you develop certain tools with the Americans, which the Canadian market would not have allowed you to do since there is less money available for development and for contracts?
Chief Executive Officer, AggregateIQ
Yes, and just to extend that a bit further, it's simply a matter of scale. You're exposed to a much larger audience in America, and you're able to see things and work on things much faster than what campaign practices might be here in Canada, in the U.K. or elsewhere around the world. Certainly in America, there's much more opportunity to expose that scale, which allows us to work with other people who can see how we work and how we help them, and it's those people who oftentimes introduce us to other campaigns.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lévis—Lotbinière, QC
Are the tools that your company developed replicas of tools available in the United States, or did you have contracts that enabled you to develop certain tools that are more advanced than what was already available in the United States?
Chief Executive Officer, AggregateIQ
No, I don't believe so.
As solution providers to campaigns, we look at all sorts of tools. If what we offer perhaps isn't the best, we will certainly help our clients use something else, because it's about them winning and being able to use the tool, the strategy, the canvassing application with their volunteers and with their staff in the best way possible so that they are able to reach as many people as possible.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lévis—Lotbinière, QC
I have one more question for you. I have a minute left.
As to that famous one million dollar contract, that can be a lot of money or not much, depending on the services offered.
What services did you offer with that million dollars, over two or three days, to the side of the campaign that absolutely wanted to win and was willing to do anything to get there?
Did those people overpay for the services you provided them?