Government Operations Committee on Feb. 27th, 2019

[Carla Qualtrough]

My understanding is that we have entered into an administrative agreement with this company while there are criminal proceedings ongoing.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

How many other companies have applied for this?

[Carla Qualtrough]

I don't know the answer.

[Bill Matthews]

We can try to find out during the hearing, if that's helpful.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I'd like to know how many have applied and how many have been turned down, please.

[Carla Qualtrough]

Can I clarify? I'm not sure it's necessarily a matter of a company's applying for this. It's whether PSPC would initiate and require a company to have one of these agreements to continue contracting with the Government of Canada.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Then did PSPC go out of its way to approach SNC-Lavalin and offer this to it?

[Bill Matthews]

If I could maybe weigh in, Mr. Chair, the process is that PSPC would issue a notice—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I don't want to know the process. I just want an answer to the question. Did you go out of your way, then, to offer this to SNC-Lavalin?

[Bill Matthews]

I will answer your question by giving you the process.

PSPC notifies the organizations that they're being suspended—that was our action to the three companies in question—and they then have a chance to respond. Based on their information, there's an assessment based on the actions they've taken: transparency, whether they've changed corporate directors, etc. We then reach an agreement or not. So, the notification is on PSPC. It's not an application process.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

It's a relatively rare process, then. Have you done this for anyone else and then continued to ban them from government contracting?

[Bill Matthews]

I think it's back to the three. Three have been suspended, and someone is....

Michael, do you want to weigh in?

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Let me just ask you—

[Michael Vandergrift, Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Chair—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I'm just going to move on, please.

Did Gerry Butts or Katie Telford or anyone in the PMO talk to anyone in PSPC regarding the integrity regime—not necessarily the DPA, but the integrity regime?

[Bill Matthews]

Not to me. I'm looking down the table here.

[Les Linklater]

Not to my knowledge.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

So, is it no or not to your knowledge?

[Bill Matthews]

I can only answer to my knowledge: not to my knowledge.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Minister Qualtrough.

[Carla Qualtrough]

The only conversations that would have been had would have been as cabinet deliberated the integrity regime and sought policy input on the direction we would go. Certainly, under the broader envelope of corporate wrongdoing, there would have been discussions that, as you can appreciate, would be covered by cabinet confidence.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Mr. McCauley, you have about 20 seconds.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay.

The Ottawa Citizen, in an ATIP we have, says that the PMO directed PSPC to start the review of the integrity regime. Is that correct?

[Carla Qualtrough]

The review was well under way when I assumed the position.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I didn't ask if it was well under way. Did the PMO direct PSPC to start this review?