Evidence of meeting #36 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 know.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
Have you compared our Accountability Act with other comparable jurisdictions around the world?
10:25 a.m.
Coordinator, Democracy Watch
It's been mainly with the provinces, and in some cases with other jurisdictions.
Our lobbying disclosure is good, but it still obviously has loopholes, which I mentioned--whistle-blower protection is far worse than the U.S. system, for example. Conflict of interest rules are about the same, when you compare them to provinces and other jurisdictions. But again, there are the huge key loopholes that I mentioned, mainly the missing apparent conflict of interest rule that used to be in the code.
Then, I think parliamentary democracies around the world are grappling with this issue of ministerial responsibility and accountability versus staff being responsible, and who's responsible for what, depending on who takes what action. I think that's an issue in parliamentary democracies around the world that remains to be defined and cleaned up.
With regard to the Access to Information Act, we're about the same as other jurisdictions, but the U.K. and the U.S. are somewhat better.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
I'm going to interrupt you for a second, and I'll probably get back to you.
Mr. Broccolini, you had mentioned how you were a bit discouraged with respect to one of the contracts. Do you do other work for the federal government?
10:25 a.m.
Vice-President, Montreal, Broccolini Construction Inc.
With the federal government....
10:25 a.m.
Vice-President, Montreal, Broccolini Construction Inc.
Public Works, no.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
Do you have any other contracts, at all, that you've bid on and that you've been successful on?
10:25 a.m.
Vice-President, Montreal, Broccolini Construction Inc.
We were successful with Export Development Canada.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
10:25 a.m.
Vice-President, Montreal, Broccolini Construction Inc.
It was a public bid, and the bids were opened privately. They had four or five bids. I don't know who they were.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
10:25 a.m.
Vice-President, Montreal, Broccolini Construction Inc.
They're happy. We're happy.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
Okay.
Mr. Conacher, back to you. With respect to some of the changes that you're suggesting to the Accountability Act or the lobbying act, I think I've seen you in front of our ethics committee as well, and I don't know if I've received any background information after you have discussed it. Do you have any specific recommendations you can actually table with us with respect to some of the rules you would like to see changed or tightened up?
10:25 a.m.
Coordinator, Democracy Watch
Yes, I can do that. As I mentioned, I was away last week when I received the invitation to appear before the committee. That's why I haven't had an opportunity to prepare a brief that would set out the specific sections that need to be changed, but I'm happy to do so.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Fortier, one of the things I found when I was elected, when I came here in 2008, was truly the deterioration of the West Block. It was something that was very troubling. I hadn't been here for a number of years, and to see the dramatic deterioration of the property was something that I was completely surprised at and staggered by. I guess that's more of a comment.
When we started this exercise, I was somewhat critical. But having heard how the department is actually undertaking the process of awarding the contracts and the professionalism of the officials in the department, I can say that I'm a bit more at ease.
What I want to know, if you can answer this, is what kind of priority was the restoration of the West Block given within the department?
10:25 a.m.
Former Minister of Public Works and Government Services, As an Individual
It was given significant importance. As I said to your colleagues, I was briefed at least quarterly on where things stood. It was important because there were vast sums of money being spent on the renovation.
10:25 a.m.
Liberal
Denis Coderre Liberal Bourassa, QC
I have two brief questions for you, Mr. Fortier.
First, did I clearly hear you say earlier that Mr. Tim McGrath gave the briefings or updates that you had every two months?
10:25 a.m.
Former Minister of Public Works and Government Services, As an Individual
I think so. He's the one who was head of real property.
10:25 a.m.
Liberal
Denis Coderre Liberal Bourassa, QC
It's because, on October 26, I put a question to Pierre-Marc Mongeau, who is the big chief of that, and he said that Tim McGrath had nothing to do with it
Mr. Chairman, we're going to ask officials again to come and testify because something is going on here. If someone says, on the one hand, that Mr. McGrath was not the person responsible and, on the other hand, that he was there, people may be involved in a cover-up and I want to know what's going on.
Second, Mr. Fortier, you were the minister responsible for Montreal. So you had a political tie with your political party, and that's normal. How can you tell me that you didn't know Gilles Prud'Homme, director of the Bourassa Conservative association?
10:25 a.m.
Former Minister of Public Works and Government Services, As an Individual
I don't know him, Mr. Coderre. That tells you that I might not have been a good political minister, but he's not someone that I knew.
10:25 a.m.
Liberal
Denis Coderre Liberal Bourassa, QC
Humility is a sign of a man's greatness. Whatever the case may be, you had no meetings with any president of a constituency association in the greater Montreal area?
