Madam Chair, I'd like to give a verbal formal notice that I'll be putting a notice to have Mr. Bennett from the Canadian Mint reappear before the committee. I should give a little background reasoning to the committee members why.
He gave a pretty rosy account of things when he appeared before the committee, and I was quite surprised by a newspaper article that appeared today stating that an outside consultant had been hired for over $2 million.
Now, during the committee meeting we were provided with consolidated statements, statements that were consolidated to the point that it was pretty thin gruel. I was trying to get at some of the numbers. There was a drop in profitability year to year from I believe $10.6 million to $8.7 million, a $2 million drop. I questioned him on the 37.5% drop in profitability. He just peripherally referenced that they had engaged outside consultants, but at no point was there even a hint that an outside consultant would cost over $2 million, which is over 20% of the profitability of the Canadian Mint.
When I was trying to get at some of those numbers, and I'm looking at the blues here, I asked him about the line on administrative costs, the fact that they had gone up by 60% and were projected to go up 86%. I asked for numeric breakdowns on the various departments that could give us a better handle on what was causing these trend lines in the wrong direction. We got no answer, but we got part of our answer today in the newspaper that there's a $2 million consultancy fee that was being paid.
I think Mr. Bennett should appear before the committee and provide some explanations that weren't forthcoming during the last meeting.
