Evidence of meeting #18 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 gillani.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
The dates of this are interesting. You said that as of September 23, 2009, you pretty well ceased to have anything more to do with the...
Chairman, Wright Tech Systems
I didn't say anything to them, really, because I hadn't been talking to them for a while, you know. And then—
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Because that exchange was September 22, but as of September 30, the parliamentary secretary, who is the gatekeeper for this fund... The parliamentary secretary's office said:
Mr. Jean was wondering if there could be any direct application for trees ruined by mountain pine beetles.
And the answer was:
Yes. The trees destroyed by mountain pine beetle could be used in conjunction with the biosolids or food waste. Trees will be chipped into smaller particle sizes...
Chairman, Wright Tech Systems
He would have had that in our description, because we have a standing description of what we do for people. We would take that type of description anywhere we went. That would be common. People could get that anywhere. We would have handed that over to people.
Chairman, Wright Tech Systems
No. Nobody ever mentioned lobbying, and I didn't know about lobbying. You have to go back there. It's not today. Today I know, because I see it. To go back there, I had no idea. I didn't even know you could lobby.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
As late as October 13, they were still going back and forth on your behalf. Now, if he had managed to convince the government to give you the loan, did you authorize him to continue negotiating with the government on your behalf?
Chairman, Wright Tech Systems
No, what I think I said—hopefully I said it right in here—was happening was that he had told us it's a very difficult road, with all the loops and hoops that you have in Ottawa, to apply for these things, and we wouldn't know how to do it, and we wouldn't. He would know how to apply for all these things; he could do that. He was a former government lawyer, I believe.
Chairman, Wright Tech Systems
So he would know how to help us really get that for municipalities. I think I said it right in here somewhere. I said exactly that. I did say that we would do it ourselves, so what was the point?
Chairman, Wright Tech Systems
And we probably didn't know it until that happened. You know, until somebody does something or commits to something, you don't really know what they're doing.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
It seems to me these guys are like parasites, suckering themselves onto a quality company like yours for the—
Chairman, Wright Tech Systems
Well, I wasn't the only company; they had several companies. They were talking to other companies. He did mention a kinetic plate and solar. He was very big into one of them, I don't know which one it was. As I said, he wasn't talking to us much, and we were out here. He wanted to represent us in China. I said, “No, I'm not going to China.”