Evidence of meeting #83 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 work.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Jenica Atwin Liberal Fredericton, NB
Who approached whom to engage Botler in selling its software to the federal government?
4:20 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
Nobody approached me about Botler. There was a conversation happening with the CBSA, understanding that more recently there had been accusations made in the Vancouver Sun and other media outlets around harassment and some things on public safety.
At that point, there had to be some sort of product out there for some small Canadian firm where we could try to identify some opportunities. At that point, I researched firms that were out there. Botler was Canadian, and they were from Montreal, so, should there be a government contract eventually, it would be easy for them to get government security clearances, and that's when I reached out to them.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Jenica Atwin Liberal Fredericton, NB
You also mentioned that your commission rate was between 15% and 30%. Is it standard to have a variable commission rate like that?
4:20 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
It depends, because a lot of the commission you get is for a per diem, so, if I had a per diem for $1,000, and there were two resources, one requesting $850 and one requesting $750, that would be the range and difference. Again, it's always the difference between the pay rate and the bill rate that determines it. It's not a flat fee.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Jenica Atwin Liberal Fredericton, NB
Just on a general contract, what would be your average hourly rate?
4:20 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
I usually work in per diems, not hours, so I'm guessing somewhere around $110 an hour. It's somewhere between $90 and $120.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Jenica Atwin Liberal Fredericton, NB
Going back to this subcontractual relationship with Coradix and Dalian, was this arrangement negotiated with them directly, or was it with the federal government or with both?
4:20 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
Once the pilot was approved, CBSA reached out to Dalian and Coradix and said that they were going to use their vehicle.
In turn, they reached out to me and said that I would be working with Dalian and Coradix, and that they deemed this to be the most suitable contract. At that point, Dalian, Coradix and I had a conversation.
Until that point, though, we had no idea which contract would be used until CBSA told us.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Jenica Atwin Liberal Fredericton, NB
Have you ever had any allegations of this nature made against you or a company you were associated with?
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Jenica Atwin Liberal Fredericton, NB
You also mentioned your concerns with our previous witnesses feeding the media.
Can you elaborate on this? What specific information do you take issue with?
4:20 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
I take issue with pretty much the majority of it.
They were paid....
It does bring suspicions to me. As we found out later on, they were actually feeding the media around the time that they decided, after not speaking with me for a year, to then make me sign a confidentiality agreement, understanding that I couldn't defend myself and put contradictory evidence towards it.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Ms. Vignola, you have two and a half minutes. Then Mr. Johns will have two and a half minutes.
4:20 p.m.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Mr. Firth, where was your office located in Ottawa when you had one?
4:20 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
We were on Bank Street between Queen and Albert, I think. It was 151 1/2 Bank Street.
4:20 p.m.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you.
When you appeared before this committee on October 20, 2022, you stated that you had billed $9 million for time, material and engagement on the ArriveCan app, over two years.
If I average the amount you give us earlier, which you say is between $90 and $120 an hour, that comes to $105. If I divide $9 million by $105 and then divide that by two, that's almost 43,000 hours of work per year. Those hours were billed by GCstrategies.
Did that cover only your own work, or did it also include that of your subcontractors?
4:25 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
We don't get paid to do the work on them. It was going to be only the subcontractors.
First, the hourly rate I gave you was on average for across the whole of the federal government. It was a bit higher for ArriveCAN, because the specific technologies that were required were not normal.
4:25 p.m.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you.
I simply want to remind you what you stated in October 2022:
We were not given $9 million. We billed $9 million for time and material, and for engagement.
Was that time, material and engagement for the both of you at GCstrategies, or for all the subcontractors?
4:25 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
Our invoicing for the federal government was to pay all of our subcontractors that were used on ArriveCAN.