Evidence of meeting #34 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 border.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Partner, GCstrategies
Yes. We had a physical location downtown from 2015 to 2020, and we now have home offices.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Without getting into your detailed CV, are you programmers or app designers?
Partner, GCstrategies
Absolutely not. We are IT recruiters. We cut our teeth in the industry working for large staffing firms, and we decided to go out by ourselves.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
In this context of your work for the Government of Canada, you're the broker, or the middleman between the government and the service provider. Is that correct?
Partner, GCstrategies
Essentially, yes. They would come to us with their requirements. They ask for them and we facilitate them.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
When we're talking about the full scope of this project, there are lots of publicly reported numbers. What is the commission for that intermediary, middleman role? We're led to understand that it's 30%.
Partner, GCstrategies
That would be at the very top end. Industry standards are anywhere from 15% to 30%, depending on the skill set and the type of resource that is required.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Regarding the app, who approached who? The Government of Canada reached out to you. You did not reach out to them with respect to this contract. Is that correct?
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Do you have a list of the department and the departmental officials who initiated that contact?
Partner, GCstrategies
No, I do not. I thought I was here to testify. I do not have that with me right now.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
With respect to this question, is that something that you will undertake to provide to this committee in writing?
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
That's great. I appreciate that. Thank you.
I have a question about some news that was reported today, but I am curious about the total amount of money that your company received from the Government of Canada for the the ArriveCAN app.
Partner, GCstrategies
Do you mean for the specific component that we were responsible for in the application?
Conservative
Partner, GCstrategies
GCstrategies invoiced over $44 million over the past two years for all of our federal work over 20 departments, but for the application that we were responsible for staffing, which included two years of support and maintenance and over 150 releases on the three platforms, we were billing approximately $4.5 million per year.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Okay.
Today, the CEO of a company called ThinkOn said that his company had nothing to do with ArriveCAN. This was reported in The Globe and Mail. He said, “We have received no money from the CBSA” and “We’re not even remotely in that space”.
Our understanding is that your organization facilitated the design and build of this app, and connected all the components. What role did ThinkOn play?
Partner, GCstrategies
We are an IT staffing firm. We have no influence whatsoever on day-to-day activities, nor do we have any influence on how its architecture is done or how it's built. We provided the team that they asked for, which designed a specific ArriveCAN component.
I cannot comment on anything outside of the bit that we were facilitating for the government.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Are you aware that the government reported, in response to a question tabled by a member in the House of Commons, that for work on ArriveCAN, a company called ThinkOn Inc. received a $1.2-million contract. Were you aware of that?
Partner, GCstrategies
Again, I cannot comment. I was not part of that and I was unaware of that.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
You weren't aware of that.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
In terms of the total cost of the app, when the government reported that $1.2 million was given, did it cause you concern that they said $1.2 million went to a company that now says it didn't receive $1.2 million?
Partner, GCstrategies
The reality is that I can only comment on what I was responsible for and what we engaged on. That's what I have knowledge of. I cannot comment on things that I wasn't part of.