Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Dec. 14th, 2010

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

There's a little problem with that. In Ms. Hamilton's presentation she said she had deleted it, and then she went into her sent items to retrieve it.

[Lynne Hamilton]

No. Through the chair, just for clarification--

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

Am I wrong on that?

[Lynne Hamilton]

I went into the sent items to get the document that he had sent me back. It was not the one that had the document in it, but my sent response that said “I heart you”.

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

All right, thank you.

Does anybody else want to comment on my first question? If you found a copy in an envelope marked “draft” on Wellington Street, would you tear it open or would you try to get it back to the person who had lost it?

[Lynne Hamilton]

I'll take this one only to say that I never thought for a moment that Russell would send me this kind of information. He never had in the past. I never anticipated for a second that he would put me or himself in harm's way like this.

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

No, I appreciate that, and I'm not suggesting that. From all of your comments, no one solicited this, but you received it. No one asks to find a lost wallet with a thousand-dollar bill in it, but we would all hope that people would return that to its owner. And that's where the credibility gap for me comes in here. It was a draft. In the subject line it said “draft report”.

And to Mr. Gibbons' comment, you were representing a client. That client is paying you to follow the proceedings. I would assume that you would be following closely the House of Commons procedure for the tabling of a report to make sure that report is tabled and you would get your hands on it as soon as you could to relay to your client, whether or not--

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Your time is up.

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

I'm sorry.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you.

Well, hopefully they can answer this under the next line of questions.

Monsieur Paquette, are you up?

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

It is indeed surprising that none of you who received this report had the reflex to call Ms. Block. When you receive a document that you do not expect to receive and on which you read a warning that says that it is confidential that even goes so far as to refer to the House of Commons Procedure and Practice, I find it surprising that nobody ever thought of phoning the manager who is involved in this. I find it rather hard to understand because it would suggest that in a certain way—and I am not casting any doubt on your word regarding the fact that you never solicited this email—once you received it, it was practically something normal. This is what I find a bit worrisome.

I would like to ask you if your companies or yourselves are registered as lobbyists in the registry.

Mr. Gibbons.

[Andy Gibbons]

Thank you for the question.

All of my activities with respect to government relations and the consultations and work I do are all registered publicly on a website. It's all available, proactive, and transparent.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

And yourself?

[Lynne Hamilton]

In addition to Mr. Gibbons' comments, yes, all of our activities are registered on the lobby registry.

[Clarke Cross]

I report all registerable activities and conversations with designated public office holders in accordance with the act.

[Howard Mains]

Yes, indeed, I follow all the obligations that are required of me under the act.

[Timothy Egan]

I report all reportable activities under the act as well.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Gibbons and Ms. Cross told us that they had sent a very specific part of the report to some clients. In one case it was the University of Calgary. In your case, it is a pharmaceutical company.

Mr. Mains, did you send a part of the document to one of your clients? I know that you work in the same firm, from what I gather, but—

[Howard Mains]

I did not read the report. I did not open it. The report and the e-mail were deleted from our system at about 3:30 on Friday afternoon, so I did not read it and did not open it.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Ms. Hamilton, is it the same with you?

[Lynne Hamilton]

No, I never communicated the contents of that report to anyone.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Egan, you never received it, therefore—

[Timothy Egan]

That's correct.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Good enough.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Monsieur Mulcair is next.