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.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Have you ever met him in a hotel?
4:40 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
I don't have that information. I can look in my Outlook. I don't think so.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
You don't know if you met him in a hotel.
Do you know if Cameron MacDonald has a cottage?
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Do you know if he had one?
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
How many projects have you worked on with him?
4:40 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
We first met in 2009. The first contract I had was in 2020, 11 years after we had our first call.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Can you table all the documentation you have for projects that you've done with Mr. MacDonald?
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
When were you approached by Mr. MacDonald about Botler?
4:40 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
This was a conversation not about Botler but, again, identifying the systemic problem in the federal government with harassment.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
What was the price for the CBSA Botler pilot?
4:40 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
I believe you'd have to ask Coradix and Dalian. I don't have the final price. I was not dealing with the government directly.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
You can't tell us about the target price for the enterprise implementation of the Botler solution for the Government of Canada that you were working on.
4:40 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
No, because I do not know exactly how many people are in the public service. I don't have that number.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Do you know what your commission would have been on the Government of Canada-wide implementation of that project?
4:40 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
No, because the deal was never done. I don't have that number.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
You entered into this without knowing what you'd get paid for it. It was just goodwill by the guy who committed fraud to increase billing rates on résumés for subcontractors. It was just you doing a nice thing for Botler and the Government of Canada.
4:40 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
As I mentioned, it was not fraud. It was a mistake. Increasing that did nothing to the rates. The rates are fixed price. This is not per diem based.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Sir, you said previously that you were paid primarily per diem. We know that the per diem rates are set based on the experience of the subcontractor. How could it not affect the price if you change the experience of the person who is doing the work—if it increases the per diem rate?
4:40 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
It's a fixed price. It doesn't matter if the per diem was $20 or if it was $900; the fixed price for the deliverable would be $54 or whatever the number was. It doesn't go off time or material; it goes on fixed price and deliverables.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Fraudulently changing the résumé to qualify someone and inflating the number of hours that they have is absolutely going to affect the price of the contract and whether or not the person is going to be able to do the contract.
4:40 p.m.
Partner, GC Strategies
As I mentioned, it's different categories. After it was deemed they were not compliant with those, there would have been a different category they would have been compliant for, and per diems don't matter on a fixed-price contract.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Is your testimony that you did speak with the persons named in those résumés? You spoke with them by telephone about the changes you made, the fraud you committed on those résumés. You spoke to them; you did a back-and-forth on the telephone with them about the résumés. Is that your testimony today?