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.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Was that because you were working in a different capacity between 2010 and 2015?
Partner, GC Strategies
Yes. My network got larger during that period. I got a better understanding of the business and I could notice that there was more contracting coming out of the federal government.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Between 2010 and 2015, what do you think the driver was? Do you think that the driver somehow peaked at 2015, and you said, “Oh, my God, this is great. Let me jump on it.”?
Partner, GC Strategies
Not really. If I were going to pick a year, there seemed to be an influx somewhere between 2012 and 2013, I would guess.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
What would you attribute that influx to? You were monitoring the market because you wanted to place people and you're saying you saw an influx. Did you ever look into why the influx was coming?
Partner, GC Strategies
There were more and more RFPs available for bid, for tender, on the streets.
Liberal
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Have you any observation around departments or government at that time making decisions that you could recall that would impact that? I'm trying to use my words very carefully.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Is it possible that the government at the time during that period got rid of a lot of [Technical difficulty—Editor]
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
[Technical difficulty—Editor] civil servants, and therefore, by default, to maintain a very old system, they had to go out—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Mr. Jowhari, could you just start at the beginning of that last question, please?
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Okay.
Is it possible that during that period, a correlation exists between the fact that the government of that time, in the interest of potentially balancing the budget, got rid of a lot of civil servants and a lot of intelligence—or a lot of capacity, let's say—and then had to compensate for that by going out and outsourcing for staff augmentation?
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Is it a possibility, or are you not sure? You're in this business. You've been in this business since 2005. You find the aspiration to register a company in 2015. Because of your network, you and your partner have done well among the 636 companies, but you're not watching trends and you're not making observations. Am I hearing you right?
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Okay. What was your observation during that period and what is your observation from 2015 until now?