Government Operations Committee on May 25th, 2020

[Scott Jones]

One of the things that we've really been looking at is that we're a net contributor. Because of our defence with the government, we contribute quite a bit of value to the cybersecurity ecosystem in the world. Our partners around the world value that. In fact, we're one of the top one or two contributors in a lot of things, so we do contribute quite a bit, and we get stuff back as well. We look to build on that and the expertise that we have and to continue to build the strong relationships. It's a relationship—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Do we risk being shut out of such information for using Huawei, when everyone else has banned Huawei for security reasons?

[Scott Jones]

We continue to work with our partners. That's a decision that the government will take into account when it makes its decision. For us, we continue to see no change in our sharing.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Do you think this is going to be a political decision as opposed to a decision made by your department or on information provided by your department?

[Scott Jones]

One of the things for us is that we see no change in the sharing between all of our international allies, including what we share with them on cybersecurity.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

If we went to Huawei, you say you believe there would be no change in sharing. We've heard the U.S. threaten to cut us out of information sharing if we go to Huawei. Is that not a concern for you?

[Scott Jones]

I can't speak to what other countries have said. For us, we continue to build strong partnerships with our international partners, and that will be part of the decision.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I know you can't speak for other countries. Is that not a concern for you, as a Canadian dealing in your business, that we will be shut out if we go against our allies' wishes and go to Huawei servers?

[Scott Jones]

One of the things for me is to always show that we provide strong value to our allies. Hopefully they'll see that we have really unique cybersecurity information that we share with them constantly.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I'm dumbfounded. I'm absolutely dumbfounded.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much. I'd like to thank all of our witnesses who were here today, witnesses from Shared Services Canada, the Treasury Board Secretariat and, of course, the Communications Security Establishment. Your information, your testimony, has been very helpful and informed.

To Mr. Jones personally, I know that on a number of occasions people talked about the fact that you may have some difficulty sleeping at night, particularly in your position. I would just point out to you, sir, that's why God invented red wine, so perhaps take that into account.

To the rest of you, colleagues, we will meet again this Friday at 11 a.m. eastern standard time. I wish, in the intervening three or four days, that you all keep healthy and safe, and we will see you on Friday.

Have a good evening, everyone.