Government Operations Committee on March 13th, 2024

[Kristian Firth]

No.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

It was a pilot, but there was no completion. Is that correct?

[Kristian Firth]

It was actually a feasibility study. It was just to see if this would even integrate into CBSA and whether it would be adopted. My understanding was that the first two components were done, which is what they were paid for. It was the second and third parts that were never asked for.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

Who paid them, though? You didn't pay them.

[Kristian Firth]

I paid them.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

Who paid you?

[Kristian Firth]

Coradix and Dalian paid me.

I had zero margin on this. I made zero dollars off Botler for two years.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

Dalian got a contract with the government relative to the work being done by Botler on this feasibility study. Is that correct?

My Internet is unstable. I apologize.

I want to understand—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm sorry, Mr. Sousa. We're out of time. Can you just finish up with the question for Mr. Firth?

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

How did Dalian get the contract?

[Kristian Firth]

They were advised by the CBSA that there would be a task authorization to do the Botler work from the CBSA. They had an existing contract in place and asked if Botler would work with them for that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thanks very much.

Ms. Vignola, you have two and a half minutes, please.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Firth, is GC Strategies the only company you currently own?

[Kristian Firth]

GC Strategies is the only company that services the federal government. That's correct.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I see. There are other companies, then, but they don't provide services to the government.

According to newspaper reports, one company used tax havens. Is the use of tax havens in line with your values?

[Kristian Firth]

I don't rely on tax havens. The other company I own that's in there, I think, is something in 2004, which is a venture that I started about doing car detailing. It wasn't an offshore account or tax haven.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

In 2018, GC Strategies put up a post that it was partnering with then senator Mr. White. In what capacity did you partner with Mr. White, the senator, not Caleb White, your partner?

[Kristian Firth]

We were introduced to Senator Vern White at a social event. At that point, he was in the Senate. He was a retired chief of police from the City of Ottawa and, I think, assistant commissioner of the RCMP. We were looking at doing some work in the municipalities—for Durham and a few others—and he was interested in helping us get some contacts in there. He was never on retainer; he was never paid. We never actually got a contract through Mr. White. He was just more of a strategic adviser when it came to policing and public safety.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I want to follow up on what you were saying earlier about Coredal Systems Consulting Inc. According to public records, it had three partners, three shareholders: you, Mr. Anthony and Caleb White, not to be confused with the former senator. Public records also show that the company ceased to exist in 2015.

You said that prior to April 2015, you weren't involved, you weren't partners. You said you didn't purchase the company until April 2015 and that you no longer had access to all the pre-2015 information. I'm trying to get a handle on how all this worked.

[Kristian Firth]

It was just a simple acquisition whereby, for a short moment in time from when we bought the company to when our name changed, we were owners of Coredal. We purchased that company, and then after two to three months, the name changed. That moved it to GC Strategies. It was just an acquisition at that time.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Did Caleb White—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm afraid that's past our time.

Mr. Bachrach, go ahead, please, sir.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to ask some questions about why the government needs companies like yours in order to achieve its outcomes. I'll go back to some testimony, Mr. Firth, from a previous meeting, when you said, “If they want to eliminate the middleman...then they should have the ability to invoice or go directly to some of these people who have the software and have the product. Unfortunately, at this point, that doesn't exist.”

Why isn't the government able to go directly to vendors and invoice them directly for their services?

[Kristian Firth]

My understanding is you have to become a qualified vendor with PSPC. My understanding is it's a pretty arduous task to try to do that, and a lot of people don't want to do it. Whether you're an independent or whether you're a firm, a lot of people are okay with having a middleman to navigate those potential hurdles for them.

It's typically by choice. The ones that want to do so become qualified vendors and have the opportunity to go directly to the government.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

I'm a bit unclear here.

The government has these criteria in place and these processes to ensure that vendors are qualified, and the way vendors can get around them, instead of working directly for the government, is by working for another vendor that is a qualified vendor.

Is that correct?