Government Operations Committee on Oct. 31st, 2023

[Colin Wood]

That is the task authorization request from CBSA for firm price deliverables for the Botler AI project.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Did you contribute to the Botler AI project?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

You're muted again, Mr. Wood.

[Colin Wood]

I'm sorry for that, Mr. Chair.

Regarding this task authorization and the work with Botler AI, we were the prime contract holder. The resources, including Ritika Dutt, were provided to us by GC Strategies, which was in partnership with Botler AI.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

If GC Strategies provided the resources, why was CBSA sent an invoice on Dalian's letterhead, not GC Strategies'? At least one invoice appears on your letterhead.

[Colin Wood]

I think it's important to understand, and this is probably a question for GC Strategies on their contractual relationship with Botler AI. Our contract to provide these deliverables was through GC Strategies. We invoiced CBSA and paid GC Strategies, which paid Botler AI.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you, Mr. Wood.

Thank you, Ms. Vignola.

Mr. Johns, go ahead, please, for six minutes.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Maybe you can explain something again. What is your relationship with Kristian Firth of GC Strategies, Mr. Wood?

Can you elaborate on how often you did business with Mr. Firth in GC Strategies?

[Colin Wood]

GC Strategies is a subcontractor that we have done work with from time to time.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

For how long has that been?

[Colin Wood]

The first arrangement we were in was back in 2020, I believe.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Do you have a personal relationship with Mr. Firth?

[Colin Wood]

No.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

In Mr. Morv's testimony at committee last Thursday, he cited that Mr. Firth boasted to them that he had dirt on various senior federal public servants who were responsible for awarding government contracts.

Did Mr. Firth ever share anything like that with you about his connections in the public service?

[Colin Wood]

I don't know anything about that.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Okay.

Let me get this straight.

You submitted information about Ms. Dutt and Mr. Morv around the task authorization. Are you saying you're not responsible because you subbed it out to Mr. Firth? Mr. Firth possibly gave you the wrong information about them by inflating their expertise.

Are you saying you're not responsible even though it's your contract?

[Colin Wood]

No, that's not what I said.

We are accepting responsibility. That was our mistake. We have a quality management system in place. We take these matters very seriously. In a case where we're working with a third party, which is what this was, we don't engage their subcontractors and we don't engage their consultants. We have non-solicitation agreements and we would never reach out to GC Strategies' contractors. We can only accept that those CVs are valid.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Okay. Why not? When you see a situation like this next time, will you be doing your due diligence, given that...?

[Colin Wood]

Yes, Mr. Chair.

To the member, we are an ISO 9001:2015 certified company, which means that our processes are certified. We have a very strict quality management system. We are in the process right now of examining our processes—

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

I bet you are.

[Colin Wood]

—and we will be making changes.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Here's the thing. Does Mr. Firth come to you and say, “Hey, I have a solution. Oh, what's the problem?”—

[Colin Wood]

I'm not—

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

—or is more like you go to Mr. Firth and say you need help with something? Does he—

[Colin Wood]

I can—