Government Operations Committee on Oct. 31st, 2023

[David Yeo]

There's a lot that we do, actually. As a matter of fact, we spend hours and days and weeks replying to RFPs, creating bid responses, which cost thousands and thousands of dollars, where some we win and some we lose. There is so much background activity that goes on in the contracting world. It's not just a matter of doing A and B and getting C—collecting money for C. It's not that simple.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

This is fascinating.

[David Yeo]

There's a lot of background activity that happens and [Inaudible—Editor].

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

This is fascinating. There's a lot of room to save money.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Gentlemen, I'm sorry, but that is our time. I said I was going to stick to five minutes.

Mr. Sousa, you are next, please, for five minutes.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

Thank you very much, guys.

Mr. Yeo, I really appreciate your military service to Canada. I want you to recognize that we appreciate what you did over that period of time.

[David Yeo]

Thank you.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

I know that these are tough situations right now, and all of us have a lot of questions in terms of the activity by which this contracting process took place. We appreciate your patience in trying to get some clarity as to how these practices take place.

Mr. Wood, I just want to understand it. With regard to the the practices you're implementing today, is it exactly the same way as it was 10 years ago?

[Colin Wood]

Yes.

Mr. Chair and to the member, can I take a moment to explain what it is that we do?

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

Please proceed.

[Colin Wood]

We are an IT consulting company or an IT staffing company. The key components of our business are in proposals, recruitment and account management. We also have teams in IT and teams in innovation. We also have a finance and administration team and a small team that handles our security.

Our focus in this business that allows us to do work with the federal government is all around proposals. Last year, we responded to 93 proposals, at a significant cost. We win under 10% of those proposals. Once we are awarded contracts, we then are sent task authorizations by our clients, and the consultants are found and searched through our recruitment teams. Last year, our recruiters had over 1,500 meetings with consultants.

We do this, so that when we are successful and the government awards us these contracts, we're able to successfully deliver against them, with the best talent we can find, so that they stay and fulfill their contracts and complete the work.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Wood, thank you for clarifying that. We understand the complexities required in these contracts. They're no easy task.

If you open Canada.ca, much of what has been requested of you is listed there, as well. There are a lot of contracts that Coradix, Dalian and GC Strategies.... Quite a bit of it is outlined there. It's confusing to us, because there's so much. We're trying to understand specifically what these contracts mean.

In regard to Botler specifically.... To clarify, you had no relationship with Botler. It was in regard to a pilot. There was nothing around ArriveCAN. Any amounts outstanding between Botler and GC Strategies was between themselves. You had no opportunity to oversee what Botler was doing.

[Colin Wood]

That's correct.

Mr. Chair, Botler was paid for the work they delivered.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

Thank you.

Is the RCMP investigating you right now?

[Colin Wood]

No, not that I'm aware of.... I've had no discussions with the RCMP.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

The RCMP is not investigating anything in regard to ArriveCAN at this point, as far as you know.

[Colin Wood]

I can't speak for the RCMP, but not as far as I know.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

That's true. I apologize for that.

The process by which you operate today and by which Dalian operates today, even with the joint venture, is exactly the same as it's been for the last.... How many years is it?

[Colin Wood]

It's been since 2004.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

That was under a previous government, as well.

[Colin Wood]

That was under—

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

You were operating the same way under the former government.

[Colin Wood]

Yes.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

With respect to the process and the allegations you're facing.... How do you respond to that?

[Colin Wood]

Mr. Chair, I will respond, but first I'd like to clarify an earlier comment by a member about the Botler project being $4.3 million.

That's completely incorrect. It was a $140,000 contract.