Evidence of meeting #11 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was business.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Richard Nadeau Bloc Gatineau, QC
As I understand it, these companies paid you to collect that information.
Green Power Generation Corporation
No, because our goal for our business was much larger, not to sign any contract for payment for lobbying or any contract that would force us to be in a situation where we would have to be lobbying. That's not what we wanted to do. We wanted to build and take these technologies into new markets, and that's what our goal was. So if we could help them achieve their goals on their own by their going down their own path and talking to whomever it was they felt might may help them, that's great. But our goal was to sign agreements internationally to represent their technologies.
Bloc
Richard Nadeau Bloc Gatineau, QC
So, how did your company generate revenue, if they were the ones who would be receiving the funding?
Green Power Generation Corporation
That's what my partner said. We budgeted a significant amount of capital out of our own pocket for the first year to build this business, and that's how we've been paying for it. We haven't received any revenue yet. When I mentioned to you the goal that we have of executing, hopefully, a deal in China very shortly, that will be the first major opportunity for us to generate any revenue with the new technology the Chinese are interested in. But for now, we've paid for all of this all through our own blood, sweat, and tears, and our own capital.
Bloc
Richard Nadeau Bloc Gatineau, QC
So, as I understand it, you conducted business in the last year, or since you have been in your current position, for which you generated no income.
Green Power Generation Corporation
No. That's the way it goes. When you build a new business, it takes time if you have a bigger goal in mind. Unfortunately, we're running into some challenges now, given all this attention we've had, but—
Bloc
Richard Nadeau Bloc Gatineau, QC
Why did the former Minister for the Status of Women Canada write a letter to Wright Tech Systems? Was it to try an influence them? Was it to try and put you in contact with them? What was the purpose of that action on the part of the former Minister?
Green Power Generation Corporation
You will have the opportunity to ask her that question, I'm sure, at some point. But I can clarify to you that the company in question I believe is located in or has a home in my wife's riding. We had been introduced to that company and realized, through some exploration, that it did not have a technology we would ever work with.
I believe he asked me if he could pursue, through my wife's office, the opportunity to educate her about his business. I said, “That's fine, if you want to do that, as we're not doing any business together.” My wife also asked me, “Are you doing any business with this company”, and by that time we had decided we weren't going to be doing any business. I think that's how their interaction began. But I assured her that we didn't have any business dealings with that company, and that we didn't plan to have any business dealings with that company at all.
Liberal
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I only have one question, and I will be sharing my time with my neighbour to the right.
Monsieur Jaffer, you are acquainted with the Federal Accountability Act and what it involves. With hindsight and in all honesty, do you not think that, since you made yourself out to be someone who could lobby the government, you should have registered as a lobbyist to carry out the kind of work you were doing?
Green Power Generation Corporation
Thank you, Mr. Gourde.
I've never presented myself as a lobbyist. If that were our business, yes, I would have registered. I would have gone through the process to make sure that I followed all the rules under the Lobbying Act. But that was not the nature of our business, and I never told anyone I interacted with that I could help them in securing any form of government support. I was able to advise them on the process, if they wished to do so, and was able to direct them to the proper government departments where they could make their own contact. But by no means did I ever plan to do any lobbying in our business; otherwise, yes, I would have gone through the procedure to register as a lobbyist.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Rahim, Mr. Martin brought this up, and I think it's crucial to the understanding of this committee and the discussion in it, and that's the impressions you may have been giving potential clients. Mr. Martin calls it “influence peddling”, others are calling it perhaps unethical behaviour, but I think you probably owe it to yourself, and certainly to the committee, to answer a couple of questions about some of the statements made on your website.
One, my understanding is that your website said you could “secure support from the Canadian government”. My question would be, did you claim that on your website? And if you did, do you not think that statement is inappropriate, because it implies that you have influence within the government?
Green Power Generation Corporation
I can assure you, Tom, that statement was not on our website, because that's not something we offer anyone we deal with.
Just to back up—
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
If I could maybe clarify that, did you have a personal website and your company, GPG, have a website as well?
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
Did you have this statement on your personal website?
Conservative
Green Power Generation Corporation
Not that I'm aware of. That's not something that we do, Tom.
But if I could say, there's only been one person—and unfortunately we don't know all of his business dealing, but we see that he's had some other issues—who has made this claim. We don't do that kind of work. And for whatever reason, if he's made that claim or not, as we've seen in reports, it's unsubstantiated. It's not something that we do in our business and it's not something that we offer to people. That's not the goal of our business.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
Further to that, let me ask you whether this statement on your website is true or not. Your website apparently claims that you are a “key player in coordinating future policy between various branches of both the Canadian and U.S. governments”. Was that statement ever on your personal website or your corporate website?
Green Power Generation Corporation
That was, I believe, on our corporate website, because that was the experience Mr. Glémaud had in his prior life when he worked in the government, and he still continues to do some of that work with different levels of government in the U.S. and here in Canada. He could answer that question.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
If the statement was on your website, what I'd like to know is whether you claim this statement was factually correct, or were you implying an offer of some service that you actually could not provide?
