Information & Ethics Committee on Feb. 10th, 2023

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Ms. Alvaro volunteered on my campaign. In 2017, when I was a first-time candidate, she volunteered.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

In which role was that?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

She did communications and spokesperson work.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

In subsequent campaigns, did you ever pay her for communications work, support work or campaign work?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

I've never paid Ms. Alvaro for her volunteer work.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Okay.

In your role as a minister, you noted that your office made a mistake. In fact, we see quite clearly that Mr. Jason Easton's signature is on the procurement contract, yet when your deputy minister was here, he noted that this was not a regular practice.

How often does your chief of staff directly procure contracts on your behalf?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

In my delegation of authority, there is a limit threshold for the delegation of—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

That wasn't my question, Ms. Ng.

How often does your chief of staff procure on your behalf, given that your deputy minister and the person responsible for the procurement noted that this is not a typical practice coming out of the minister's office? How often do you do that?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

It would be in the course of his work in carrying out of the function of running a minister's office.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

How many contracts are you personally procuring on behalf of your ministry?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

I don't personally procure any contracts.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

How many does Mr. Easton procure on your behalf? It was noted as being out of the ordinary.

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

A delegation of authority to a chief of staff is not out of the ordinary. A delegation—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

That's not what I asked. It's the procurement of contracts in a way that is out of the ordinary. That was the testimony of the procurement department here.

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

The delegation of authority allows for a chief of staff to—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Okay, Ms. Ng, if you don't want to answer th question, that's fine.

I will go on to the scope of work, because I want to get a clear sense of what the deliverables were.

We know that in the communications support plan submitted in the documents, there were key strategies and deliverables. The first was an overall social media campaign, including hashtags.

What was the outcome of the generated use of those hashtags? How many interactions...or how many times did you use it?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

I wouldn't be able to tell you specifically how many, but I would say that using a hashtag was simply a means of being able to share more widely under that particular subject to Canadians.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Sure. I'll note for the record, and maybe you can confirm, that you didn't use the first two, which are #standingupforsmallbiz and #standingforsmallbiz.

I will note that according to my search, you used #supportforsmallbiz twice. The other hashtags seem to have been adopted from a conference somewhere else in 2017.

In that use of hashtags, you also have, in the scope of work below the MP tool kit,“video questions and answers, including FaceBook, Instagram and Twitter Lives”.

How many of those activities were actually delivered, given this strategic plan?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Every week I delivered an “ask me anything” so that any small businesses across the country would be able to ask me anything.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Where? Where did you...?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

It was on Instagram.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Okay. What about Facebook Live? How many live videos did you do there? It said “facilitate and support”, so I want to know how many Facebook Lives did Ms. Alvaro facilitate and support?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

There were Facebook Lives with a range of social media-type commentaries that I participated in. I couldn't give you a specific number. What I can say was it was very regular, because—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

How many Twitter Lives did you have?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

The one Twitter Live that comes to mind would be one with Amber Mac, as an example. She is someone who is a commentator for a range of technology-type businesses. That one comes to mind, but—