Thank you.
Through that process, the minister's officials did not pick up on the basic fact that there were subcontractors.
VFS Global confirmed that the subcontractor is a state-owned company. Even though VFS has failed to answer my questions about how many CCP members work with the subcontractor, I have obtained a copy of the report of a 2017 meeting of the Shuangxiong CCP branch, showing that it elected the deputy secretary of the party branch of the Shuangxiong company.
Chinese regulations require that the party secretary and chairman of the board of a state firm with three or more CCP members be the same person. The general manager position within a state company must be filled by a deputy party secretary. Chinese regulations also state that the first role of the executives is to execute the will of the party in performing their duties.
That means the Shuangxiong company, the general manager, the subcontractor doing visa application centre work for Canada, is under the control of CCP. Effectively, Canada is letting the CCP run and operate Canada's visa application centre in China.
Is this a concern for the minister? Did the minister, in due diligence, pick this up? Given this regulation, will the minister take the immediate step to cancel the contract with VFS Global?