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
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Well, Mr. Chair, I'm not sure where we go with that, but I'm sure we'll discuss that in due time.
I'm going to turn some of my questions to a slide deck for a possible app in March 2020 that you were asked to create. It's my understanding that this deck was presented to Minh Doan, a key government official who was involved in ArriveCAN, and that particular app had a Distill Mobile logo.
If that is correct, who asked you to provide the deck?
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Sure.
You were asked to put together a slide deck for a possible app in March 2020. Who asked you to provide that deck?
Partner, GC Strategies
I'm more than happy to get that to you in writing. I was not aware that this question would be coming up.
March 2020, Distill, yes, I can get that to you.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Okay.
You were contacted by the government and told that you were receiving a contract for ArriveCAN. Is there anyone at the CBSA who would have to declare a conflict of interest on contracts you are bidding on?
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Okay. You are not related to anyone at the CBSA.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Are you related to anyone working for a government department or any public office holder?
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Okay. Thank you very much.
Let's turn now to Vaughn Brennan. He is an Ottawa-based consultant, and it is my understanding that you know him professionally. Is that correct?
Conservative
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Mr. Brennan's wife worked at Procurement Canada. That's the department responsible for government contracts. Were you aware of this?
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
I guess it's another convenient coincidence.
Who were your contacts with the government at the following departments and agencies? We have the Canada Border Services Agency, and it's my understanding that there are 134 contracts there; Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, at 24 contracts; and Employment and Social Development Canada. Who are your contacts with all of these departments?
Partner, GC Strategies
I'd like to provide all of those details after this meeting, please. I would not like to speak about it publicly, just with how this committee is going. If you wouldn't mind, I will provide that information after this meeting.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
We're out of time anyway. Perhaps we can get back to that in the next round, or it can be provided in writing.
We have Mr. Kusmierczyk, from sunny, tropical Windsor.
Please, go ahead, sir.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Firth, for your testimony here today.
I wanted to ask you this. You stated that you were part of about 100-plus contracts throughout your career with the federal government. Have any of those failed to deliver?
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Have you ever failed to deliver what was asked of you in any contract, whether it was a contracting agency like CBSA or Procurement Services Canada?
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Going back and picking up on a question that my colleague just asked regarding the mandatory criteria, the Auditor General's report and the procurement ombudsman basically concluded that this is a documentation issue that we're looking at here. Those were the huge gaps that we saw. There weren't any paper trails. The Auditor General called it some of the “worst financial record keeping” that she had seen.
That's the conclusion of both of those independent agencies, but there's one issue that I want to zero in on, because it is more serious than that, and that is the question about your role in drafting the mandatory criteria. The argument from the Auditor General is that this had the potential to artificially reduce competition on the bidding process and, as a result, Canadians would not have received the best value.
I know there are some things you mentioned that you aren't able to respond to right now in terms of who you were involved with directly in designing the “mandatory criteria” that “favoured” GC Strategies. Those were the words of the ombudsman, but can you tell us how often in this line of work a company like yours is involved in designing the mandatory bid criteria?
Partner, GC Strategies
Again, I can discern things that I can disclose and that I can't, and I can't comment for all the other firms, the 635, and what they do.