Government Operations Committee on Oct. 29th, 2024

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Mr. Doan indicated that he was limited in his conversations with the vendors. I believe Mr. MacDonald will add useful information in the corroboration of determining exactly what happened, again to learn, going forward. Mr. MacDonald is part of the piece in finding out whether there was a problem with the process or if it was the malicious actions of an individual.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Okay. That helps.

Is it okay to offer an amendment?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Yes, please go ahead. If you have a copy of it, send it to the clerk.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

That's already been done. Isn't that excellent?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you. It's such an improvement over Mr. Bachrach.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

At the end of the motion, all I want to add is this:

And that the committee agree to conclude this study after hearing from these witnesses and move on to the review of a draft report; that the committee present a report to the House and request a government response.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

As I understand it, we've already started on the draft report. This would be separate from the draft report, because this is on the lost emails and such.

Was the intent to include this?

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

I understand it is a motion for a new study.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Right, but it won't be.... My understanding—correct me if I'm wrong—is that we have already started the draft report. We'll get to it, probably, in four weeks—

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Then there would be no harm in adding this.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

—so this would be a separate piece, off of that.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Pardon me. I don't understand.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

The draft report on ArriveCAN will be presented with recommendations. It will be from what we've heard up until probably a month ago. This is something separate coming out of ArriveCAN, so it won't be....

I understand what you're saying with the amendment, but it won't be needed. We've already started the—

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Are these two separate studies, or one? If they're two separate studies—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

My understanding is that they're separate.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Then I think this makes sense to me.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm sorry. Yes, they're separate.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

If it's separate, then there's going to be another report. I want to make sure we get that done and move on.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Yes. We were chatting this morning. The hope is that because it's a big report being drafted, we'll get to it in mid-December and start the line-by-line.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

That's excellent.

Therefore, I'm moving this amendment for the next report, I guess—for this report.

I'm done now. I'll leave you to chairing.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Yes, that's acceptable.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Yes, I think everyone's fine with that amendment.

That's perfect. We just have....

Okay, Mr. Sousa, go ahead on the amended motion.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

Well, the whole motion suggests that there's an issue with the storage policies. It's based on the premise that we could not receive Minh Doan's emails. I think that's how it's being prefaced here.

However, Erin O’Gorman clarified that only the account was deleted, not the emails. The CBSA has access to his corporate emails. I know the clerk has received hundreds of pages for the committee, so the emails aren't lost. The emails are within our purview. They've been there since April.

Therefore, the premise of the motion is incorrect. That's not what has taken place. The emails are available. That part is a non-issue.

Consequently, as a result of that, I have further amendments to the amended motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Can you send them to the clerk? Then you can read them off.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

I can. I can read it as well.

I'm trying to determine what is actually at stake. If it's about emails, my first amendment is to remove Minister Anand. The directives in regard to the management—