Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Dec. 16th, 2010

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

You said your legislative assistant informed you, warned you, or announced to you that Mr. Ullyatt had forwarded these confidential reports. How did your legislative assistant learn of this? How did he or she know about this?

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

As I mentioned in my opening statement, my legislative assistant, Emrys Graefe, informed me of the breach. Mr. Ullyatt had--

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

No, but how did she...?

I'm sorry, is it a she or a he?

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

It's a he.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

How did he learn that Mr. Ullyatt had given these reports to lobbyists?

You don't need to look at your notes. You should know the answer.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

I prepared these notes to come to this meeting.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Fine. Then you know what's in the notes.

How did the employee find out that the other--

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

He received the e-mail, and as he scrolled down through the e-mail and followed the string of messages, at the bottom of the e-mail was one that had been sent to Lynne Hamilton.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Excuse me. Explain that to me again.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

He received an e-mail that had numerous strings of messages--

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

From whom?

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

From Mr. Ullyatt.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

I see. So Mr. Ullyatt sent your legislative assistant an e-mail, and at the bottom of that e-mail was a string of other e-mails--

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Yes.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

--that had been sent by Mr. Ullyatt, including one--

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Including the one that he had sent to Ms. Hamilton.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Are you aware of Mr. Ullyatt giving committee reports and/or information to lobbyists in the past?

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Ullyatt did not give reports to lobbyists.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Thank you.

Why did you limit the timeframe during which the House IT services examined this to just these two days and only to e-mails containing the exact subject line? You know and we know that if he changed the subject line by even one character, it would not have shown up. Why did you limit it to just these two days and that particular subject line?

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Mr. Chair, I knew what I needed to do when I needed to do it, and at the time that we were looking for any e-mails that might have been sent, that was the subject line we were looking for. We knew when the report had arrived, so we included a 24-hour period.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Will you ask the House IT services to go back and look at all correspondence between Mr. Ullyatt and lobbyists since his employment in your office and have them provide that to the committee? Will you do that?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Proulx, I think you're going a little further than this breach of privilege that we're here to study today.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

I don't agree with you, because—

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

You and I can have a difference of opinion. That's true.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

No, that's fine. You're blocking my question. That's okay.

Mrs. Block, were you aware that Mr. Ullyatt had been applying for work with lobbyists while working for you?