Industry Committee on Jan. 31st, 2024

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Would you have expected him to know about this?

[Leah Lawrence]

Yes, I would have expected that public information.... Some research would have been done before candidates were spoken with.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

You mentioned that your government relations lead was in contact with the minister's office about these conflicts.

Who was that?

[Leah Lawrence]

It was Veena Bhullar.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Was all of this verbal, or did she also communicate it in writing?

[Leah Lawrence]

I don't know whether she communicated it in writing. SDTC would have to bring forward any information if she did.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Mr. Chair, I would ask that the committee request any emails from this individual sent to the minister's office or to the deputy minister concerning these conflicts, if there are any.

[The Acting Chair, NDP, Brian Masse]

Thank you. It's well noted.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Did the idea of managed conflicts change the tone on the board from what you experienced previously under Mr. Balsillie? How did board members deal with their conflicts in proposals that came forward, whether it was COVID relief money or...at least to Andrée-Lise Méthot and Stephen Kukucha, who subsequently had projects approved that they had financial interest in? SDTC funded them.

Was this a managed conflict that seemed okay because the board set out that it was okay, or did they say, “Oh, no, we don't think this is appropriate behaviour, so we'll make it a choice of either being on the board or having our financial interests benefit”?

[Leah Lawrence]

I can give you a specific example.

There was a board member pre-2019. Mr. Lunn and I spoke to them about a potential conflict they had as a consultant with an organization. They stepped back from the organization and recused themself. Later, after Mr. Lunn was gone and Ms. Verschuren was appointed—it was about a year after she was appointed—that individual came back and said, “Well, given that direct conflicts are now allowed, I'm going to go on the board of this organization.” That was a funded company.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Who was that?

[Leah Lawrence]

That was Guy Ouimet.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

He appeared before this committee and admitted that he had a $4-million project that got funded while he was on the board.

Did Ms. Verschuren approach any management to lobby for money on behalf of the Verschuren Centre?

[Leah Lawrence]

Not that I'm aware of.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

We have emails from your chief investment officer VP that confirm he did and that he approved the fast-tracking of that consideration. Those were given to us by the whistle-blower. Would that surprise you?

[Leah Lawrence]

Excuse me, but this is a bit technical. The fast track would be if she—

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

She had requested it. It's in the email.

[Leah Lawrence]

I would have to look at the email. A fast track is a thing that is different from—

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I don't need the fast track explanation.

Did any director who left the board after the cooling-off period policy was passed then contact the board to lobby for money from SDTC on behalf of a company they were involved in or employed with, against the policy of the board?

[Leah Lawrence]

There was an instance where a board member left the board. I asked Ms. Verschuren to write him a letter saying that he could not apply from the perspective of the company that he currently worked for.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

However, that board member was calling and applying.

[Leah Lawrence]

He was part of an application he wanted to put forward. We had to remind him that the cooling-off period had passed.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

What was his name?

[Leah Lawrence]

It was Geoff Cape.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

He actually went on to be the CEO of this company after leaving the board and within the one year cooling-off period was trying to get money from the board.