Evidence of meeting #127 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 emails.
A video is available from Parliament.
5:55 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
I couldn't tell you.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Parm Bains Liberal Steveston—Richmond East, BC
When you lost those emails, did you say, like, “Oh, no. I've lost a lot of important information”?
6 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
Yes, absolutely.
As I said in my opening remarks, I am the one who brought it to the attention of my team, whom I asked to recover the emails. That is well documented. The Canada Border Services Agency still has those emails. I asked my team to immediately initiate the process of recovering the emails.
It's in the email. I asked them to use either internal tools or services from other groups within the agency, such as internal investigation, who I assume have extra tools to do this type of work.
I asked them to contact Shared Services.
6 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
It was my IT team, which is responsible for technical support. My main interface was my direct report at the time, who was the DG leading that IT team.
6 p.m.
Liberal
Parm Bains Liberal Steveston—Richmond East, BC
Were they able to successfully get some of this stuff back?
6 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
It was not in the time that I needed. I also moved to a different department after that.
I believe the efforts are ongoing, but I would have to refer to CBSA to see what the status is. I know this is being currently investigated as well.
6 p.m.
Liberal
Parm Bains Liberal Steveston—Richmond East, BC
Those efforts are ongoing. We, at some point, could possibly see these emails.
6 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
I can't speak on the efforts. I'm obviously not part of it. I'm not part of the investigation looking into this allegation. I haven't met with the investigator.
6 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
I believe the efforts are ongoing by CBSA.
6 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
If memory serves, she was somebody who was in charge of financials or procurement under Mr. MacDonald and then subsequently under Mr. Utano when Mr. MacDonald left. That would be my memory.
6 p.m.
Liberal
6 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
No, I do not. My apologies. No, I did not.
6 p.m.
Liberal
Parm Bains Liberal Steveston—Richmond East, BC
Were you then surprised to hear Kristian Firth of GC Strategies say that Diane Daly was the public servant he met with when he was allegedly able to negotiate or provide technical recommendations for the original ArriveCAN contract?
6 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
I was not expecting that.
6 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
I was not expecting that.
6 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
Following the testimony here, I would have thought that he would have dealt with somebody a little bit more senior in terms of dealing with and negotiating things around contracting.
6 p.m.
Liberal
6 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
I can't tell you from memory. I didn't interact with her. I can't tell you from memory what level she was, exactly.
If memory serves, she was not even an executive. In terms of specifics, she was not even what we would call an EX 1. I may be wrong there. She may have been acting.
6 p.m.
Liberal
Parm Bains Liberal Steveston—Richmond East, BC
Who would be the appropriate person that Mr. Firth should have been talking to?