Government Operations Committee on Dec. 9th, 2010

[Bernard Côté]

Mr. Gagnon?

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Yes.

[Bernard Côté]

Since I started with the Conservative Party. He was there as well.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Were you dismissed from Mr. Fortier's office?

[Bernard Côté]

I submitted my resignation.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

You submitted your resignation, or someone helped you submit it?

[Bernard Côté]

I submitted my resignation.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

On what date?

[Bernard Côté]

In June 2008.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Was that in Mr. Fortier's presence or did you submit it by mail? How did you do it?

[Bernard Côté]

By telephone.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

There's no written letter?

[Bernard Côté]

Yes, there's a written letter.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Which was sent to whom?

[Bernard Côté]

To the chief of staff.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Who was?

[Bernard Côté]

Claude Alain.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

That's funny, sir. I like you because you have a very good memory, except for one event that was at the restaurant with Mr. Sauvé. I noted that you had a very good memory. It's very selective, sir, enormously.

I believe we're going to invite you back.

Thank you very much, sir. Good day.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Mr. Lemay and Mr. Côté.

Mr. Holder, you have five minutes.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I've almost forgotten what the topic is, but let's see if we can bring it back to renovations on the West Block and any involvement, Monsieur Côté, that you may have had.

First, thank you for attending as a guest of this committee.

My questions are on a couple of things. I'm just trying to get a sense.

But first, I'm really glad you're in good health. It seemed to be a preoccupation of some.

What's of more concern to me is the truth, and the committee should always and ever be about truth. I'd like to remind all committee members that Mr. Côté was asked to be sworn in and did so quite voluntarily.

Mr. Côté, may I ask you how many times you have had to come in front of committees in the past?

[Bernard Côté]

Never.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Never. So if this is the very first time you've come in front of a committee, I would find, from my standpoint, that as a new experience it might potentially be a little bit intimidating. Is that fair to say?

[Bernard Côté]

Yes, it's fair to say.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

And frankly, you might reflect after this meeting and sense that this was exceptionally so, based on some of the rapid-fire questioning.

But again, I want to come back to points of truth. Does it seem reasonable—I guess to any committee member, but since you're our witness today, I'll ask you—that if you came to a committee for the first time, you might ask for a little bit of guidance about coming to a committee?

[Bernard Côté]

Do you mean how it works, what the procedure is, what the rules are? You try to know in advance what it is.