Government Operations Committee on June 19th, 2025

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Sure. We can do that and revisit it in September. Are we fine with that?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

You guys are going to love this one.

We made a document request to Dalian and Coradix, and we discussed it greatly. It was much delayed because of translation and other issues. It is ready to distribute. It is many thousands of pages, and it was provided by the two companies in question, so there are items that are not redacted, including personal information.

We can distribute it to everyone, but I'm going to suggest that because it's not redacted and includes personal information, for the meantime we send it only to the P9s and not make it public. These would be sent out over the summer. I think it's close to 100,000 pages. It's many thousands of pages.

Again, they haven't provided it in redacted form. We did not ask for it in redacted form, and so, because there's private information—whether phone numbers or emails—I'm going to suggest that in the meantime or until we decide otherwise, it be distributed to just the P9s.

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata, ON]

Again, having no context of where this is coming from or not knowing the previous work on this issue, I'm not comfortable with having something sent to my P9 that contains personal, confidential information.

I would suggest again that the clerk can prepare a brief for us or get us into the loop of what has happened.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

The original motion was not written such as we can decide.... The motion was to table them with the committee. They are ready. What I'm suggesting is that we just limit them to the P9s for the present.

They are going to come out. The motion was that we'll send, depending on what we decide....

The motion was to provide them to the committee. I'm suggesting that because they're not redacted, and I'm not sure what personal information is in there, we would limit it to the P9s for now, and then we can decide from there if we wish to go more broadly, as is normally done.

[Iqwinder Gaheer, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Mr. Chair, isn't it the usual practice for members to review documents like this in camera?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm not going to propose that we review 100,000 pages in camera.

I'm suggesting that they're coming out. My suggestion is they stay with the P9s until we may decide otherwise in September.

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Again I apologize, Mr. Chair, but is there a way for us to get some sort of briefing on what this is, on the context?

I like politics as much as anyone, but I didn't follow—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

You could read the blues from the meetings or ask the analysts, perhaps, to send you a brief.

Again, the motion called for the items to be delivered to the committee.

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Do the motions from the last Parliament carry over to this one?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Yes. There were—

[Pauline Rochefort, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Excuse me, but isn't the...?

Oh, they're discussing it. Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

It was asked and it was committed and delivered, but it hadn't come to us just yet.

[Pauline Rochefort, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

I am also a new member, sir. I'm sorry.

On that note, though, did the motion not die when Parliament ended, and is it not the issue then—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

It had already come to the clerk, and it had been kind of sitting during prorogation. If you wish....

I can't imagine any of us wanting to sit there through the summer and reading 100,000 pages on this. If it's this big an issue, I can have someone send a....

You can read the blues and see exactly what it is. I can have the motion sent to you, you can get a bit more context and we can follow up in September.

Go ahead, Madame Gaudreau.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I'll summarize the situation.

We were elected a number of weeks ago. We must do our homework, which involves going through everything that has been done. I may have known this before my colleagues. I was briefed by my former colleague, Mrs. Vignola, who isn't even a member of Parliament any more. Summer is a good time to review what has been done.

I would even vote in favour of resuming the unfinished work. We're talking about public funds, so this work matters. Since there are thousands of pages to read, it shouldn't be done here. We need to do it during our constituency weeks, so that we're ready in September.

We must also think about our future business. However, let's finish what we started in the last Parliament.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thanks.

I'll get to you, Mr. Patzer.

I'm conferring with the clerk. The items were delivered to the committee; they just hadn't been forwarded when prorogation happened. I can have our clerk explain why we can still access them.

I've heard from Ms. Gaudreau that she would like to see them over the summer. I think other colleagues would like to see them as well, and considerable expense has been put into translating these items.

Go ahead, Mr. Clerk.

[The Clerk]

Thank you, Chair.

All of this documentation is basically the response provided by the two firms in question, Dalian and Coradix, to the committee following the adoption by this committee of a series of motions for the production of papers. These motions were adopted, if my memory serves me well, in November and December of 2023.

Of course, the text of these motions can be found in the relevant minutes of the proceedings of these meetings. The committee, for instance, was sending for a copy of the contract that was signed between GC Strategies and the CBSA, the Canada Border Services Agency. The committee requested lots of documentation and information.

All this is to say that it took some time for these two companies to give a full response and provide full documentation to the committee. They did so in early 2024, last year, and as the committee chair just mentioned, it spent some time at the Translation Bureau throughout the last year, and we received it fully translated toward the end of last year, in 2024.

My team and I, the committee assistants, were aiming to send it to all committee members by mid-January of this year, but what happened, as you know, is that on January 6, a prorogation of Parliament occurred, and that basically brought everything to a halt, including that type of distribution.

Then—you know the story—there was a dissolution of Parliament and a general election was called. This documentation is still in the hopper of the committee, so this is why I was asking the committee's leadership to see if the committee wishes to receive that documentation and re-establish the study, because it has been in the hopper for a little while.

I hope this gives more context to the committee members.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Sir, go ahead.

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Mr. Chair, first of all, thank you for the context. I appreciate it.

I'm not exactly sure it's realistic for a new committee member to read through hundreds of hours of blues to try to get an understanding of what is coming through—i.e., 100,000 pages of documentation.

I think a proper briefing is appropriate in this regard, and then we can make an informed decision, or have an informed vote, at least.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'll recognize Ms. Gaudreau and then Mr. Patzer.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Mr. Chair, two things are on the table right now. I'm all for a briefing and a summary of what has happened. This could indeed be done in September, in virtual mode. I totally agree with that.

However, we aren't in agreement and we may need to vote on this. In my opinion, we can't just abandon documents that have been pending since 2023. We can draw things out, but we need these documents.

You even said that we would receive them, but now things seem to have stalled. We could schedule a briefing for the people who need it. I would obviously be one of them. I need the documents in order to be ready in September.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thanks.

I was hoping to do that on unanimous consent, but that's obviously not going to happen. It would require a motion from the floor.

We can consider that a motion just to release them only to the P9s, as I'm suggesting, or to the general committee. I'll leave that to you.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I move that the documents from the last Parliament be sent only to our P9 account so that the committee members can consult them.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

These are the documents from the Dalian and Coradix motion.