Evidence of meeting #109 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 company.
A video is available from Parliament.
Noon
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Are you committed to providing all these figures to the committee? If you fail to provide the figures requested, the committee can require you to do so. We can order the submission of your tax returns and all this information. Are you voluntarily committing to giving the committee this information?
Noon
Partner, GC Strategies
Can someone check my translation? I'm getting some serious echo here. It's overlap I'm hearing from the member and then my translator. I can't quite pick it out.
Noon
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Actually, we are out of time for Mr. Berthold.
We have Mr. Jowhari next.
Noon
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.
It seems that there were many interpretation issues. The witness had a great deal of difficulty answering the questions that I asked in French. I think that it would be appropriate to give me more time to ask questions. It isn't…
Noon
Conservative
Noon
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
I know, but there were a lot of problems for the translation, and it's not fair for francophones.
Noon
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
I accounted for that. I reset your clock to the very beginning. You were 26 seconds in when we had to interrupt, and I set it back to zero. You did have your full five minutes, I'm afraid.
We're going to go to Mr. Jowhari and then we will have our 10-minute suspension. Then I will get the clerk and the IT folks to discuss with Mr. Anthony any other translation issues. We will get those fixed.
Mr. Jowhari, please go ahead, sir.
Now we are having trouble with Mr. Jowhari.
Why don't we do our 10-minute suspension right now? We'll get the audio and everything fixed and we'll start back with Mr. Jowhari in 10 minutes or so. Thanks very much.
We are suspended.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
We're back. We're going to get going again.
Mr. Jowhari, thanks for your patience. I'm glad we have you back speaking.
Go ahead for five minutes, please, Mr. Jowhari.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Anthony, as the chief security officer of a Canadian corporation of which you hold a 50% share, you told us that you also share in the profit of the corporation. Am I right to understand that?
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Okay.
Yesterday Mr. Firth indicated to us that of the net revenue from the $11.2 million that was granted to GC Strategies, GC Strategies earned $2.5 million. Did you share, based on that, $1.25 million of that $2.5 million, sir?
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
I assume you're saying indirectly that you benefited from $1.25 million net on that.
Can you explain to me how you share the profit, but when it comes to the risk associated with that or with any type of inclusion, you are very comfortable saying, “As the chief security officer, I do the checks on the resources, but....”?
I understand, based on Mr. Firth's testimony yesterday, that there were over 30 consultants related to ArriveCAN. You must have processed their security background, yet you do not know anything about the project and you do not know anything about the document tracking. The only thing that you've made a comment on is that document safeguarding was not a request.
Can you explain to me how you're comfortable taking $1.25 million, but you're also very comfortable washing your hands of anything that has to do with ArriveCAN?
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Okay. I take it that you are comfortable taking $1.25 million, but you're not comfortable talking about other contracts. Let's talk about your contracts, then.
You said you have contracts for the private sector and you have different contracts. You have public sector contracts for different accounts. Can you give me a breakdown of how many of the total accounts under your supervision are private and how many of them are government-related?
12:15 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
I would say it's sixty-forty for the private sector.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
It's 60% private sector and 40% public.
Of those private contracts that you have been securing, do any of them work directly or indirectly with the other 40% in the government?
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
It's 10%. Okay.
Aside from the accounts that Mr. Firth holds, can you tell me what departments you hold accounts with in the Government of Canada? Which departments do you have a relationship with?
12:15 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
We don't hold any contracts with the Government of Canada at the moment.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Can you tell me what contracts you held before that as part of that 40%?