Evidence of meeting #81 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 cbsa.
A video is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
According to Mailtrack, your emails are being read by someone other than you, and only emails that relate to GC Strategies or Dalian or that include keywords like that are affected. Am I understanding that correctly?
Chief Executive Officer, Botler
Yes, it's anything related to the misconduct. It's not necessarily just on GC Strategies or Dalian but also on reports we're sending and communications with CBSA, PSPC, Treasury Board Secretariat and any entity associated with the larger systemic government corruption we have uncovered. Those communications are regularly being accessed.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Have you done an ATIP to look at the invoices you've been paid?
Chief Executive Officer, Botler
Yes, I have an ATIP, and I would be happy to table that.
October 26th, 2023 / 5:05 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Botler
The ATIP was from Dalian. It showed they were billing for individuals who were conducting the work. It was for me, and there were two other names that were redacted. From the TA, we know those names were Amir and an individual named Patrick van Abbema.
Chief Executive Officer, Botler
Mr. Brennan is an individual introduced to us by Kristian Firth in 2019. He was brought in as a self-styled political insider who was referred to as a mentor for Mr. Firth. When we were discussing how CBSA wanted to take this enterprise, he checked the pricing of $23 million per year with Mr. Brennan. Mr. Brennan said that is a drop in the bucket. He's also the individual who wrote the case for Shared Services Canada for $5 billion, based on what we were made aware of.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Would it take you very long to produce a list of names? You talked about Mr. Lessard, Mr. Brouillard, Mr. Gaudreau, Mr. Utano and Ms. Daly, who are obviously key players directly related. Would it take you 24 hours to come up with a list of names you've dealt with on this?
Chief Executive Officer, Botler
If you could give us until Monday, we can get back to Montreal and compile everything.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Okay. Do I need a motion to ask that they provide a list, Mr. Chair, so we can add witnesses? I think we clearly need to hear from the people directly related to this.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Absolutely.
You talked about the CBSA systems around security. We keep hearing from public officials who've reassured us over and over that the use of outside consultants and contractors doesn't pose a significant threat to Canada's data and security.
Can you talk about how you feel about that—you weren't given any proper clearance or an NDA—about Canada's security clearances right now? A lot of people's data are right at your fingertips.
Conservative
Chief Technology and Security Officer, Botler
We were cleared. We had security clearances, but I find it very disturbing.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thank you, Mr. Johns.
Mr. Genuis, go ahead, please, for five minutes.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I should have said this at the beginning of my last round: Thank you very much for being here and for your courageous and important testimony.
You identified, confirmed and provided evidence of systemic government corruption in procurement. This includes ArriveCAN. It goes beyond ArriveCAN, though. It's deeply disturbing and something our committee must get to the bottom of.
I want to ask you this: To your knowledge, who in elected office or among government political staff was aware of your concerns, and when and how did they become aware?