Evidence of meeting #74 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was foundation.
A video is available from Parliament.
10:20 a.m.
Former Vice-Chair of the Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Foundation Board of directors, As an Individual
I must admit that I'm not in a position to answer that question. This is a routine thing, because it's micromanagement. We're not involved in governance.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Thank you, Mr. Fergus and Dr. Adam.
Mr. Villemure, you have the floor for six minutes.
10:20 a.m.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the three witnesses for being here. As my colleagues have done, I'd like to extend my condolences to Dr. Gibson.
Dr. Adam, the foundation has several types of members. Among other things, there are family members—at the moment, I believe it's only Alexandre Trudeau—and regular members, such as Mr. Sahlas. Is that correct?
10:20 a.m.
Former Vice-Chair of the Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Foundation Board of directors, As an Individual
Yes, and I believe there was another member.
10:20 a.m.
Former Vice-Chair of the Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Foundation Board of directors, As an Individual
Yes.
10:20 a.m.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Okay.
There can be up to six government appointees. I believe there is one right now, Dennis Browne, who is 93 years old.
10:20 a.m.
Former Vice-Chair of the Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Foundation Board of directors, As an Individual
That's correct.
I'd like us to clarify the difference between board members and members, because it's confusing. At the moment, no board member, except Mr. Sahlas, represents the family, a person appointed by the government.
10:20 a.m.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Okay.
As vice-chair of the board of directors, you were aware of the existence of the executive committee, the nominating committee and other similar committees, much like those on all boards of directors. The foundation had the executive committee, the applications and appointments committee, the audit committee, the finance and investment committee and the governance committee.
10:20 a.m.
Former Vice-Chair of the Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Foundation Board of directors, As an Individual
Yes.
10:20 a.m.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Would you tend to find the same people on these committees, including Bruce McNiven, Peter Sahlas, Alexandre Trudeau and Edward Johnson?
10:20 a.m.
Former Vice-Chair of the Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Foundation Board of directors, As an Individual
I'm sure you have the list of members. I've never looked into that carefully. I believe Dr. Redfern was on a finance committee. I sat on the executive committee, and particularly on committees more related to the foundation's mission.
10:20 a.m.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Would you say that the people I named, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Sahlas and Mr. McNiven, had a great deal of influence on the foundation as a whole?
10:20 a.m.
Former Vice-Chair of the Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Foundation Board of directors, As an Individual
I would say so. Some of them are founding members and have been there for 20 years.
10:20 a.m.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Yes. According to our little sheet with the dates, these are pretty much the same members who have been there for a very long time.
Dr. Redfern, you were on the finance and investment committee. In that capacity, you were responsible for administering the investments made from staffing.
10:20 a.m.
As an Individual
I understand that there were. It's a question that was actually raised over a year ago when I was on that committee.
10:20 a.m.
Bloc
10:20 a.m.
As an Individual
That is the question I asked. I got a response that we did have two Chinese company investments, which represented 0.07% of the total investments.
10:20 a.m.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
When you wanted to know a little more about foreign investment, did they cooperate with you or did they make your life miserable?
10:20 a.m.
As an Individual
I definitely had some concerns around the possibility of Chinese investments, depending on where those investments were.
The additional information that was provided to me was that one was with Tencent and one was with Baidu. I did google them and saw that there were some concerns around those companies in relation to the issue of privacy, especially that of the Chinese people.
I had a fulsome discussion with the members of the committee and the investment firm about how we invest. I was told that we have ESG principles that guide the investments and that quite a lot of work had been done before my arrival to help direct the firm on how we make investments.
10:20 a.m.
Bloc
10:20 a.m.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
You mentioned Tencent and Baidu, two Chinese companies that do have privacy issues. They are known for having a close relationship with the Government of the People's Republic of China.
If I summarize what you just said, staffing amounts were invested in Chinese companies, including Tencent and Baidu.