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.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
That's fair enough.
Our concern here is to find out.... If someone is saying that an organization was paid $1.2 million and then that organization says it didn't receive $1.2 million, there is a lie there, and we have to source that. We have to figure that out.
The committee passed a motion requiring documents to be turned over: a list of contractors, subcontractors, breakdown of costs, a list of contracts, all RFPs and invoices. Are you in receipt of that request for documents?
4:20 p.m.
Partner, GCstrategies
I'm sorry. We were contacted on Tuesday. You have to have five days to even submit information, which didn't fall in place, but we were never told we had to provide anything. We were just told we had to be here for testimony.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Okay. Are you willing to provide the committee with the documents I just referenced?
4:20 p.m.
Partner, GCstrategies
I'm sorry. My understanding was that you've asked the federal government to provide those to you.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Right. We find ourselves in a situation where we're checking people's homework, unfortunately. The government is saying one thing, and now we're looking to the private sector to find out what was paid, things like the total amount received from the Government of Canada for the app—which is a number you've referenced—the names of all subcontractors and delivery partners, how much they were paid, deliverables, proof that some subcontractors had security clearances and that all work was done in Canada.
Is that information you would be able to provide to this committee?
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
I'm afraid I'm going to have to interrupt.
We're going to go to our next round with Mr. Housefather, but I'm sure we can get back to it in the next round.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Thank you very much.
Welcome, gentlemen, and thank you for coming.
If I understand this correctly, you are a company that does what many companies in the industry do. You don't retain employees on staff, because you don't know what projects you're going to have. You have a large group of people that are experts in certain subject matters, and you assemble them for your clients when and if the client has a project.
Would that be accurate to say?
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Do many companies, including in the private sector, use firms like yours to develop large-scale applications like ArriveCAN?
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Perfect.
Did any politician ever come to you and say, “Let's negotiate a contract?” or was it always staff members of the department?
4:25 p.m.
Partner, GCstrategies
It was the staff members of the department who came and engaged us in conversation.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Have you ever negotiated anything with anybody who was a public office holder, or was it only staff?
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Perfect.
When staff members came to you and said, “Can you go out and assemble this great group of people?”, did they say anything like “Please make sure you get Liberal donors and Liberal supporters to be the people who come work for us?”
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
It was a completely apolitical decision where you assembled the best possible team that you could assemble.
4:25 p.m.
Partner, GCstrategies
Yes. They came to us because we have a proven track record of providing these skill sets and teams for them to review.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
As you stated, the team that you assembled, they delivered what they were supposed to deliver on time.
4:25 p.m.
Partner, GCstrategies
They never missed a deadline and completed over 150 releases in two years.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Let me ask another question. On this project, you said you billed, related to ArriveCAN, approximately $4.5 million each year, so about $9 million total. Is that correct?
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
That is not profit to you. Is that right? That is your cost, where you are getting money from the government and you are paying the people that you engaged to work on this project. Is that correct?
4:25 p.m.
Partner, GCstrategies
We were not given $9 million. We billed $9 million for time and material, and for engagement.