Evidence of meeting #15 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was documents.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Martin Daraiche  President, NATIONAL Public Relations
Chantal Benoit  Director, NATIONAL Public Relations
Martin Perelmuter  President, Speakers' Spotlight

11:30 a.m.

President, Speakers' Spotlight

Martin Perelmuter

Yes, I definitely felt like we were being intimidated.

11:30 a.m.

Liberal

Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC

Thank you.

11:30 a.m.

President, Speakers' Spotlight

Martin Perelmuter

It was frankly quite shocking to be completely honest.

If the letter was sent to us privately, we could have responded privately and that should have been the end of it. We could have given our response, which was that we were prohibited by law from doing what was asked of us, but because it was thrust into the public sphere, we didn't have that opportunity to respond.

We've been dealing with the ramifications of that for the past three months now.

11:30 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

Thank you very much, Mr. Perelmuter.

11:30 a.m.

Liberal

Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC

I'm very sorry.

11:30 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

That's all the time we have. We're a little over time, but I wanted you to finish your answer.

Ms. Gaudreau, of the Bloc Québécois, for six minutes.

December 7th, 2020 / 11:30 a.m.

Bloc

Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC

Good morning everyone.

I appreciate your valuable time.

To start, I want to provide you with some context for what is happening here. It is important for you to understand the situation we, as parliamentarians, find ourselves in. Much can be blamed on the pandemic, to be sure, but taxpayer money is a precious thing.

I know what you've been through and it makes me very uncomfortable because we have had the same experience. We need to know the facts as they pertain to taxpayer money, and that is why we are here today. You should take pride in speaking up today to set the record straight by answering our questions. I, too, have some questions at random.

I had a look at the documentation. My first question is for Mr. Perelmuter.

Mr. Perelmuter, I would like to know when you became involved in the speaking engagements and contracts relating to Mrs. Grégoire and Mr. Trudeau from 2014 to today.

I would like you to tell us about your involvement with them.

11:35 a.m.

President, Speakers' Spotlight

Martin Perelmuter

Is it in terms of our working relationship with Justin Trudeau and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau? I want to make sure I understand.

The last time we worked with either of them was, I think, 2013. We did two speaking engagements with Justin Trudeau in 2012. When he decided to run for the leadership of the Liberal Party, that's when he decided to stop doing any speaking engagements. That was the last time we dealt with him. We did a couple of events in 2013, I believe, with Sophie Grégoire Trudeau. Since that time, we've had no dealings with them.

11:35 a.m.

Bloc

Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC

Are there ever events where the speaker does not receive a fee? Would a client still use your services in that case?

11:35 a.m.

President, Speakers' Spotlight

Martin Perelmuter

It rarely happens when we're involved, because we don't charge a retainer fee for our clients. We earn a commission on the fees for the speakers we book. Once in a while, we do get involved in a pro bono situation to help out a client, but for the most part, it's only paid speaking engagements with which we're involved.

11:35 a.m.

Bloc

Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC

I see.

How do you determine the fee for the speaker or person you are dealing with?

11:35 a.m.

President, Speakers' Spotlight

Martin Perelmuter

The market determines the fees. We try to best understand what the market is, where the individuals we work with fit into that marketplace and then we test it out when we're working with someone new by setting a fee. If we can't seem to get any momentum going, it might be a fee issue and we might have set the fee too high.

We tend to go below the market value at the beginning to build some momentum, and then work from there, assuming the feedback is good. It's really the market that determines the fees.

11:35 a.m.

Bloc

Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC

That's great.

I gather that you have had no dealings with Mr. Trudeau since 2013.

I'm not sure whether you know, but Mrs. Grégoire gave talks in London a few months ago.

Were you aware of that?

11:35 a.m.

President, Speakers' Spotlight

Martin Perelmuter

She was in London.... I'm sorry. When was that?

11:35 a.m.

Bloc

Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC

It was in February or March of this year.

11:35 a.m.

President, Speakers' Spotlight

Martin Perelmuter

There was a WE event, I believe, just before the pandemic hit, but Speakers' Spotlight was not involved with Sophie Grégoire.

11:35 a.m.

Bloc

Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC

Very well.

My next question is for Ms. Benoit and Mr. Daraiche.

You said a WE Organization employee contacted you on May 15. If you can remember, can you tell me who it was?

11:35 a.m.

President, NATIONAL Public Relations

Martin Daraiche

It was Leeanne Comish who sent the message via LinkedIn.

11:35 a.m.

Bloc

Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC

On August 6, La Presse reported that your firm had approached federal MPs from Quebec for a list of community organizations that were short-staffed.

Is that true?

11:35 a.m.

President, NATIONAL Public Relations

Martin Daraiche

We know that, as members of Parliament, you are in contact with many organizations and sometimes students. People regularly tell you what their needs are. It happens often.

We did indeed reach out to MPs' offices. We wanted to make sure that they were passing on the information, which was already public, about the Canada student service grant to organizations in their ridings.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

That's all the time we have for that round.

Thank you, Mr. Daraiche.

11:40 a.m.

Bloc

Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC

Thank you.

11:40 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

We'll now move to Mr. Angus for six minutes.

11:40 a.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

Thank you very much.

I really appreciate both organizations appearing.

As part of our committee, I want to make it clear that your presence here does not mean that you were involved in doing anything wrong. This has been a very complex issue with a lot of questions. My interest is to get clarification on details from you. When I ask you questions, I don't want you to feel that we're judging you or believing that you did something wrong. We need to get some answers here to clarify this.

Mr. Perelmuter, thank you for supplying those documents. They end in 2013, so that was the end of your working relationship with Madam Grégoire Trudeau at that point, because she did a number of other WE events. Was she involved with your organization after 2013?

11:40 a.m.

President, Speakers' Spotlight

Martin Perelmuter

That's right.

We were not involved in any events with her after 2013.