Just for the record I was quoting the Auditor General from her appearance just this morning. Basically what we're dealing with is $20 million worth of contracts going to GC Strategies. The Auditor General has told us and told committees that there was not documentation around decision-making, and that there was a non-competitive process that was pursued. There was an accountability void and these costs clearly ballooned from $80,000 to $60 million. This is a company that's gotten $250 million worth of government contracts since Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister. This committee has tried to get answers from the directors at GC Strategies. They have ignored two summons.
This committee has summoned them to come and testify. This committee has similar powers to that of a court of law and parliamentarians are entrusted to provide answers and transparency on behalf of Canadians, especially when it comes to tax dollars. When the government forcibly takes dollars out of the pockets of Canadians and decides to spend them, taxpayers have a fundamental right to know where the money went, why it was spent and whether or not all of the rules were followed. The Auditor General has raised major red flags. Her report and her testimony today in committee aren't just findings of sloppiness or some i's not dotted or t's not crossed. She has exposed monumental levels of mismanagement on this.
I would like to propose the following motion. Given the seriousness of the fact that the summons have been ignored, that these officials at GC Strategies have not come to answer on what they did with taxpayers' money, how invoices were accumulated, who signed off on these types of expenses, and whether or not the work was actually done, these are important questions that Canadians absolutely have a right to know.
Based on the statements of MPs of all parties in the House I believe that this should be a very straightforward motion that we should be able to accept very quickly because it touches on the collective rights of parliamentarians, not for ourselves, not as individuals, but with the responsibility entrusted to us from Canadians. Therefore, I believe that we should all support this common-sense motion to ensure that, when a parliamentary committee demands somebody come and testify how they spent Canadians' tax dollars, those summons are respected, the law is followed, and the proper process and protocols are adhered to.
Mr. Chair, I would like to move:
That the Committee report to the House that, given that,
(i) GC Strategies’ owners, Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony, were issued summonses on November 2, 2023, compelling their appearance before the committee on December 5, 2023, and refused to testify, and new summonses were issued for them to appear by February 9, 2024, and again GC Strategies’ owners refused to testify before the committee,
(ii) The Auditor General revealed that GC Strategies received nearly $20 million in government contracts on ArriveCAN alone, double what was originally projected,
(iii) The Government of Canada has $250 million in contracts with GC Strategies listed on its website, but claims they cannot confirm the accuracy of this amount as the website is prone to error, casting further doubt on how much this two-person IT company has received since the company formed in 2015, and
(iv) The RCMP is investigating contracting links to ArriveCAN and has met with the Auditor General concerning her findings in the ArriveCAN audit,
The Committee recommend that an Order of the House do issue requiring Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony each to appear before the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates at dates and times determined by the Chair of the Committee, but within fourteen days of the adoption of this Order, provided that, if the Chair of the Committee informs the Speaker and the Sergeant-at-Arms in writing that one or both have failed to appear as ordered,
(a) the Sergeant-at-Arms shall take Kristian Firth, Darren Anthony or both of them, as the case may be, into his custody for the purposes of enforcing their attendance before the Committee at dates and times determined by the Chair of the Committee, for which the Speaker shall issue his warrant accordingly;
(b) the Sergeant-at-Arms shall discharge from his custody a witness taken into his custody, pursuant to paragraph (a), upon (i) a decision of the Committee releasing the witness from further attendance, or (ii) a further Order of the House to that effect; and
(c) the Speaker shall inform the House, at the earliest opportunity, of developments in this regard.