Evidence of meeting #97 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 business.
A video is available from Parliament.
1:10 p.m.
Professional Consultant, As an Individual
I guess it was someone's perception of my text. They were actually in the meeting with me, and if they didn't recall, then their perception would be that I fibbed, and I did not. We were all at that meeting together, and we used the government electronic directory services to identify people.
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
You've done this for many companies subsequently, or—
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
I'm afraid that is your time.
Mrs. Vignola, go ahead for two and a half minutes, please.
1:15 p.m.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Brennan, if I understand correctly, you personally have never submitted a bid to the government. You have always worked under contract to someone else.
Is that correct?
1:15 p.m.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
In your presentation, you talked about the $500 million used to create the Shared Services Canada framework. In that case, you were a consultant, not the person who held the contract.
1:15 p.m.
Professional Consultant, As an Individual
I'd like to make a very quick qualification. In 2003 the economic review committee put in place 100 CIOs to identify shared services. They came up with a $6.3-billion spend in the federal government.
In 2005, they created a group inside of PSPC, and they broke out that $6.3 billion into three different areas. The contract I worked on was with one of those solutions companies inside of Public Works, so it was actually a $6.3-billion solution, which they broke out into data centre services and telecom services and networking services. My specific piece, my third, was specific to desktop hardware, software and services.
1:15 p.m.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you.
I'm going to go back to what you said earlier to my colleague. In a nutshell, you said that if the government had a resource to play the role of GC Strategies, which is literally that of a headhunter, it would not be profitable. GC Strategies received $9 million for its role as a headhunter for ArriveCAN.
How many public servants in Canada earn $9 million for something that's going to last a few months?
1:15 p.m.
Professional Consultant, As an Individual
That's a good point. I'm speaking about maybe the overhead to carry someone with my skill set, but that's a good point.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
We're done with your time.
Mr. Johns, go ahead, please, for two and a half minutes.
1:15 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Mr. Brennan, in the last round you said Botler contacted you repeatedly. By what method did they contact you?
1:15 p.m.
Professional Consultant, As an Individual
During the relationship, if you will, that we had from 2019 through to probably June 2021, we used email, voice mail and telephone.
1:15 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Can you provide us with records of all of those contacts and information back and forth?
1:15 p.m.
Professional Consultant, As an Individual
Unfortunately, I cannot. I'm under an NDA, if you will—a contract with Botler. They will provide them for you.
1:15 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Okay.
You sent a text to Botler on February 1, 2021. It said, “DPMO's reached out to Justice & CBSA. Contact was not able to offer context but be ready for questions if asked....”
Who was your contact in the Deputy Prime Minister's office?
1:15 p.m.
Professional Consultant, As an Individual
Again, that's another speculative and hypothetical scenario. I do not have any contacts.
1:15 p.m.
Professional Consultant, As an Individual
Again, we had several marketing discussions back and forth, and the texts were all based on hypothetical and speculative conversations.
1:15 p.m.
Professional Consultant, As an Individual
Yes. It was absolutely hypothetical.
1:15 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Okay. Under what contract or task authorization were you doing this work, and under what contract or task authorization were you being compensated for this work?
1:15 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
I mean reaching out, in terms of your text to Botler—the one I just talked about—to the Deputy Prime Minister's office.