Good evening, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
My name is Veena Bhullar, and I'm here today to help provide my assistance with respect to the ongoing study on Sustainable Development Technology Canada.
I joined Sustainable Development Technology Canada, or SDTC, as manager for communications and partnerships in November 2018. I remained in that same position until my departure in April 2021.
As manager for communications and partnerships at Sustainable Development Technology Canada, my primary responsibilities were communications focused. As I began my role in early 2019, my main responsibilities revolved around the construction and rollout of a team intranet, establishing new social media procedures for institutional SDTC accounts and liaising with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, or ISED, on upcoming funding announcements. This focused on communications and logistics.
As with any new role, fully integrating into the team at SDTC took roughly one month. There was a comprehensive onboarding process that included organizational briefings, one-on-one meetings with various departments, sitting in on funding interviews as well as various administrative and HR processes. I started in mid-November and was not fully integrated into the job until approximately January 2019.
The process to appoint the new chair of SDTC to replace Mr. Jim Balsillie was under way when I joined the organization. Annette Verschuren was appointed chair in June 2019. I was not consulted and was not a decision-maker in Ms. Verschuren's appointment process, nor was I responsible for providing advice on policy matters, board appointments or decisions around SDTC program delivery.
During my tenure, SDTC leveraged a system of procedures and structures to manage appointments. Those responsibilities were primarily held by the CEO, Leah Lawrence, and the vice-president of partnerships, Zoë Kolbuc.
Throughout my time at SDTC, I kept my direct supervisors, the vice-president of partnerships and the director of communications as well as the CEO informed of any conversations I had with the minister's office or with any other official within government. In my role, I never attended SDTC board meetings and had no operational responsibility in managing or providing advice on the appointment of an SDTC board director or allocating funds. Such matters would typically be under the purview of the CEO. The nature of my job, once again, was largely focused on communications.
Any conversations I had with the minister's office were at the direction of my superiors. I always reported any communications with political staff back to superior SDTC officials. The nature of these conversations centred around information sharing, providing updates on upcoming funding announcements and planning events. At no point did I provide advice on policy matters, board appointments or decisions around program delivery.
As you all know, as members of this committee, following testimony at the House of Commons ethics committee, the CEO resigned her position at SDTC.
While my direct involvement in the matter at hand was limited, I look forward to answering any questions you may have.
Thank you.