Evidence of meeting #108 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was contract.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
What happened to the missing $8.1 million? What do you think accounts for the discrepancy?
Partner, GC Strategies
You'll see in my evidence package that we've actually invoiced CBSA, in three years, close to $22 million, approximately. I'm not disputing the fact that $19 million was invoiced through my company monthly; I'm disputing that the $19.1 million is completely attributed to the ArriveCAN application build.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Your testimony, then, is that you received $22 million from CBSA over the same period. You are simply disputing the categorization of it as being all related to ArriveCAN.
What I would add to this in terms of, frankly, the absurdity, is that the invoices you've submitted to this committee, some of which are very vague and unclear in terms of what they actually refer to, add up to $9.6 million. You've shown this committee invoices for $9.6 million. You've also said that you got $11 million that you categorize as related to ArriveCAN, and $22 million in total.
How do you explain the discrepancy between what you've shown us invoices for and what you've said you actually received?
Partner, GC Strategies
First of all, the $22 million is not solely ArriveCAN. There were more projects we were working on during the pandemic. These were not ArriveCAN contracts. There were three pandemic—
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Yes, the Auditor General says they are, but I was asking specifically about the difference between the $9.6 million and the $11 million. You said you got $11 million, but you didn't provide us with 11 million dollars' worth of invoices.
Partner, GC Strategies
We sent hundreds of pages of documents over. I can follow up and make sure that those ones result to $11 million. I've done this, again, about three times—
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Hundreds of pages won't absolve you of the need to provide accurate information, sir.
Just in terms of the difference between the $19.1 million and the $11 million, you started off your testimony by saying that everybody is lying and saying mean things about you, that the media is wrong and the MPs are wrong, but you're also now saying that the Auditor General is wrong. What are we as a committee to make of the fact that you want us to believe that everybody is wrong in their figures except you, yet the invoices you sent to the committee don't add up to the figure you said was spent or was given to you in relation to ArriveCAN?
Partner, GC Strategies
I also said as well in my opening statement, in my testimony to this committee, that I've had death threats against me and my wife. We've had photographs of our kids taken—
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Sir, I'm looking for accurate information on the amount of taxpayer money that went to your company.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Well, the invoices do not line up with the figures you've given—
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Sir, I'd like to know this: For all the money you earned on this project, what was the total amount that you and your partner took home, after expenses?
Partner, GC Strategies
I don't have the exact numbers after taxes, after expenses, through dividends, but as I've told you, it was approximately $2.5 million to provide—
Conservative
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
You and your partner became millionaires through this project, and you want us to believe that all the rest of it, in addition to the $2.8 million, was expenses, even though all you did is recruit.
I mean, how expensive is a LinkedIn account these days?
Partner, GC Strategies
Well, $2.5 million over two years is $1.25 million. Divided by two people, that's—
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
How many hours did you spend working on sending the LinkedIn invitation, sir?
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
I think it does. How much you earn for what work is the question we're asking, and the numbers don't line up, and—
Conservative
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
How many hours did you spend working on this project in exchange for the millions of dollars that you and your partner got for the act of recruiting?
Partner, GC Strategies
It would have been between 30 to 40 hours every month, with the invoicing, with doing time sheets, with doing accounting, with paying our resources—
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
What makes you so lucky that you got this opportunity?
