Thank you.
Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee, my name is Vaughn Brennan. I am grateful to be here today and for the opportunity to respond to the claims and allegations made against me in the media and in testimony given by others who have appeared before the committee.
The story is compelling, but the allegations levelled against me are false. It’s been said that I am a political insider who rubs shoulders with ADMs. I’ve been referred to as the man who developed the $500-million business case that led to the creation of Shared Services Canada and as a lobbyist with extensive government connections in Ottawa. Concerns have been expressed regarding comments I made about millions of dollars being “a drop in the bucket”.
Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee, I am not a lobbyist; nor have I ever been a lobbyist. I have been working as a professional consultant in Ottawa for over 20 years, and I have made some contacts during that time. However, I do not rub shoulders with ADMs and do not have extensive government connections; nor have I ever claimed to.
The suggestion that I am Mr. Firth’s mentor is false. I am not Mr. Firth’s mentor; nor have I ever been his mentor. I do not know Mr. Firth personally, but I have dealt with him professionally several times over the years. I can’t speak to conversations between the witnesses and/or to witnesses and reports, as I wasn’t privy to them. However, I reiterate that the claims and allegations raised against me are false.
I’m a professional consultant, husband and father. As a professional consultant, I work with both the public and private sectors in the national capital region. In the public sector, my services include demonstrating how Government of Canada priorities and direction will align with industry standards and best practices, business architecture consolidation, change management, organizational design, and business and IM/IT transformations.
I met Mr. Firth over 10 years ago and have maintained a professional relationship with him. Mr. Firth contacts me with work opportunities that he feels might fit my skill set. Over the past 10 years I have completed two separate pieces of work through GC Strategies for the CBSA.
First, I developed an inventory of transformation projects for the transformation office, following industry-standard change management principles. Second, I identified how the CBSA could standardize the adoption of the Agile project management approach across the department for greater efficiencies.
It was Mr. Firth who introduced me to Botler—Ms. Dutt and Mr. Morv—in November 2019. In September of this year, Mr. Curry from The Globe and Mail informed me of allegations of fraudulent invoices and résumés relating to Ms. Dutt and Mr. Morv's engagement on a task authorization associated with a contract awarded to Dalian and Coradix.
I was not listed on the TA or subcontracted by Ms. Dutt and Mr. Morv to work on the feasibility study. My contract was directly with Botler to provide advisory services, research assistance, document compilation and report writing.
After our meeting in 2019, I spoke and interacted with Ms. Dutt and Mr. Morv on occasion. I was thrilled to work with Botler, a small Canadian business whose strategy might help the federal government prevent and handle harassment-related issues. I was asked to draft a marketing letter addressed to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. The letter was amended by Botler and GC Strategies, at which point we talked about sending it to Minister Freeland’s chief of staff as well. The Government of Canada Employee Directory Services, or GEDS, available to all Canadians on the Government of Canada website, was used to make sure Botler’s marketing approach aligned with the hierarchy in the DPMO's office. The majority of our marketing discussions were based on hypothetical scenarios.
In early 2021 I signed a contract with Botler—spanning February 1, 2021 to August 1, 2021—to support Botler’s research and marketing strategies. In total, I invoiced Botler $2,565.10 for my services.
It’s been stated that I mentioned a licensing fee as being “a drop in the bucket”. While this is accurate, my statement has been misinterpreted. My remark was conjectural and based on the results of a review of publicly available data regarding harassment concerns at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Department of National Defence, Correctional Service Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency, as well as on the findings outlined in the Auditor General’s report. For example, in September 2022 the Federal Court of Canada certified a $1.1-billion class action lawsuit against the RCMP over allegations of bullying and harassment.
I was invited to testify before the committee regarding the CBSA ArriveCAN app on October 31, 2023. I initially declined the invitation because the narrative was around the ArriveCAN app. I have never worked on the ArriveCAN app.
My personal and professional lives have suffered greatly because of attacks on my reputation and integrity over the past several months. This has negatively impacted my wife’s, my children’s and my mental health and well-being.
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, I thank you for the opportunity to address the claims made about me and to share the facts openly and honestly.
Thank you.
