Government Operations Committee on Nov. 30th, 2010

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

I want to be sure I understand. You were the minister. You were invited to a cocktail party fundraiser. You knew that it was a fundraiser. Ordinarily, you should have been given the names of the people in attendance and been told what they were doing at the cocktail party. Was that done?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

No, I don't agree with that.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

No?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

No, my riding president told me that he was organizing a cocktail party fundraiser. In fact, he sent me an e-mail saying that things were going well and that he had about 30 guests. I wasn't about to start investigating everyone who was going to be in attendance. I was expecting to see Conservative supporters there.

If some people had another motive—to do some lobbying, in other words—that is not acceptable. In those cases, given that I was with Public Works and Government Services, I did not discuss contracts.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

So, you had no idea that the people attending the cocktail party had been awarded government contracts?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

No, I didn't know that. Even if I had known, that would not necessarily have meant they were not eligible to receive these contracts. As minister, what was important to me was preserving the institution, and when people start lobbying, I make sure that there isn't any lobbying. So, I did not discuss contracts.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

But when you were at the cocktail party, Minister, and Mr. Broccolini was introduced to you, were you told that he was a construction contractor from wherever?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Yes.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Were you told that Mr. Sauvé was a contractor from wherever?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Sauvé introduced himself, as I said earlier, and told me that he had been awarded the contract for the West Block. So I congratulated him and moved on to something else. But he doesn't seem to be very happy about that.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

No, that's right.

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

When Mr. Broccolini started complaining about a bidding process—

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

You wouldn't listen to him.

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

No. I referred him to officials. I'm not authorized to discuss those things. There is a process in place which is managed by officials. It is not up to me, as minister, to sit down with contractors at a cocktail party to discuss these things.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

I understand. Yet a spokesperson from your department—someone close to you—told us that, that evening, you listened to a business man complain about the government's bidding process. We were told that you spent 40 minutes with Mr. Broccolini.

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

No, that's not true. I'm telling you, that isn't true.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

That isn't true?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

We had a general conversation that lasted about 10 minutes. Right at the beginning, he talked about the fact that he had had problems with a bidding process. I had to listen to some of what he was saying initially, in order to see what it was about. However, when I realized that he wanted to talk about a contract, I refused to do so and referred him to officials.

There was no discussion about that process. After that, the discussion turned to more general matters and lasted, at most, about 10 minutes.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Fine. I would also like to come back to what I might call your naiveté. You were the Minister of Public Works—

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

You can describe it any way you like.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

You were the Minister of Public Works—

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

We are here to ascertain whether or not there was political interference in the awarding of contracts.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Exactly, Minister…, please.

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

If you are questioning my political judgment, I'm not sure that is the reason for my being here this morning.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

I am not questioning your political judgment.