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.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Okay, and the amount grew.
Was there a new RFP? Was the contract adjusted every time?
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
It was amended every time. Okay.
If it was in fact a sole-source, was it used under one of the exemption clauses such as a natural disaster, for example, or in getting the initial contract were you required to respond to an RFP?
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Okay, that's significant.
Mrs. Block, do you want to...?
October 20th, 2022 / 5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Yes, I can.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you to both of you for being here today. It's been a very enlightening conversation.
I guess I want to go back to the fact that you have confirmed that you are responsible for assembling the team that would actually do the work of building this program, this app. I'm wondering how you guarantee the integrity of the supply chain.
5:15 p.m.
Partner, GCstrategies
We propose a team and that needs to be accepted. We don't just assemble the team and give them over with no evaluation or background checks. These guys have worked in the government on many other projects that have proven to be successful. Again, we are proposing a team. We are not telling the government who they should use. Every resource is evaluated and it is determined whether or not they are suitable for each of their individual tasks and responsibilities.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
On your website you state that “GC Strategies approach is to align themselves with one or multiple Innovative and emerging technology firms and offer their services as a true solution, ensuring cohesiveness and overall accountability for delivery.” What does that mean?
5:15 p.m.
Partner, GCstrategies
We were approached to do a project. At that point, in this example, we did use two or three different subject matter firms to help deliver different pieces. There was an accessibility piece. There was the application development piece. With our proving and bringing forward best in class, the evaluation period is shorter because, again, they have things they can look at and previous work that can be reviewed to see if they have the right people.
Again, the reality is that all of these resources are evaluated and can either be turned away or accepted.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
In terms of ensuring cohesiveness and overall accountability for delivery, if you're not responsible for the team that gets assembled, how do you ensure delivery?
5:15 p.m.
Partner, GCstrategies
They may have worked previously on other projects together. That accountability is that, if one of the people needs to be replaced or if delivery has faltered because there is a weak link, we would replace those people to make sure that the delivery of that project is still successful.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Thank you, Chair.
I wanted to lend my voice to echo what my colleague across the table stated and to say thank you to the CBSA agents, the frontline workers at our borders who really stepped up to the plate in a big way and kept our communities safe and helped move traffic across the border—essential services, essential workers and essential traffic.
I just wanted to say thank you, Mr. Weber. Please pass along our sincerest thanks to your members.
You mentioned the need to consult. Looking forward, can you describe ideally the consultations that could have been carried out, what that looked like and maybe what insights they could or they would have yielded in this particular case?
5:20 p.m.
National President, Customs and Immigration Union
Thanks for that.
I think what the consultation could have achieved for us would have been to share with the developers the plan in general around the ArriveCAN app with respect to what the reality would be on the ground, what would happen when the lineups became long or when people arrived without having completed the app, and what would happen when they got to ports where there was nowhere to put cars that hadn't completed it or where they had to stay in line, or if the port did not have Wi-Fi accessibility.
There are so many different, individual permutations and specificities with each port that were really not looked at whatsoever. As well, there were a lot of questions like, “Are you a Canadian citizen or a non-citizen with a right of entry?” or people were asked for the address of the hotel they were staying at. Not many travellers know that. These are all things that meant travellers would be stuck waiting in line trying to complete all of this, and we would be helping them. I think that kind of thing could have really been addressed had we been consulted from the get-go on how this should have been rolled out.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Thank you very much for that response and that insight, Mr. Weber.
I have a question now, going back to Mr. Housefather's, for Mr. Firth. Can you talk about whether the contracts your company had with the federal government were all sole-sourced? Were there competitive bids on which your company was successful?
5:20 p.m.
Partner, GCstrategies
This was the first sole-source contract or contract we were approached on in our seven- or eight-year career at GCstrategies. Every single other one was competitive.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Okay. How many competitive contracts would that be—just a ballpark figure?
5:20 p.m.
Partner, GCstrategies
There were some that were contracts for professional services, which are smaller contracts. There were 150 or 155.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
—in which your company was measured up against other companies and you came out on top.
5:20 p.m.
Partner, GCstrategies
Yes. There are tier 2 RFPs that go out to 250 other qualified vendors.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
You mentioned the fact that you are good at what you do. For a lot of Canadians who are just learning about what IT staffing companies do exactly, can you describe your specialization? What sets you apart and why was that important in this context?
5:20 p.m.
Partner, GCstrategies
As I said, between my business partner Darren and me, we have 30 years of experience dealing with IT companies, whether we are dealing with independent consultants or we have had the luxury of dealing with true subject matter firms. That's allowed us to build a network in which we know the people who have failed and we know the people who've been successful. That allows us to keep the list of people who are successful close to our hearts and to build a strong network. When it comes to opportunities where we are brought in to do some work, we know we're getting best in class, and we know we're getting people who are reliable and who have delivered multiple times before.
