It was a pleasure.
Evidence of meeting #27 for National Defence in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was competition.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #27 for National Defence in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was competition.
A recording is available from Parliament.
former Assistant Deputy Minister (Materiel), Department of National Defence, As an Individual
It was a pleasure.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
Mr. Chairman, how did we get to this from the motion that was passed the other day that we would have Mr. Williams for a two-hour meeting?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maxime Bernier
That's my question for the members.
First of all, I just want to ask the members, we have our future meeting to discuss the witnesses we want to hear for October 21. My first question is does the committee want to discuss that? If not, we can do a second five-minute round with the Liberals, the Conservatives, and the Bloc Québécois for 15 minutes.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
We can do a steering committee for witnesses for the next meeting.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maxime Bernier
Okay, we have a consensus. We're going to have three other members who will be able to ask questions.
From the Liberals, for five minutes, Mr. Dryden.
Conservative
Conservative
Bloc
Claude Bachand Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Are we going to divide up the last round equitably, as was agreed at the meeting held, I don't remember when?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maxime Bernier
Yes, in any event, it works out well, because we have 15 minutes left and three participants. That makes five minutes each.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maxime Bernier
So we are going to start on the first round. A little earlier I asked you whether we could start on the second round. If you want to start on the first round, that will be three minutes per person.
Liberal
Ken Dryden Liberal York Centre, ON
Mr. Williams, you had an opening statement. You've had an hour and a half of questions and answers and sometimes questions and answers from the same person.
After engaging in all of this for this period of time, what are the most fundamental messages that you would want to leave behind for us?
former Assistant Deputy Minister (Materiel), Department of National Defence, As an Individual
I think the key for me is that when you're spending billions of dollars there's a higher-ground moral, ethical, and integrity issue here. I cannot see any reason that we don't do this kind of business that is so important to the country in terms of jobs in an open, fair, and transparent way. I don't see why we can't in fact hold somebody accountable for this, as opposed to obfuscating accountability.
I think the government, the opposition, Parliament should do a lot more when spending billions of dollars to be able to hold somebody accountable effectively. To allow this kind of misdirection I think is inexcusable and indefensible and I'm saddened by it. I expect a lot more from the leaders of our country in terms of how they're conducting their business and doing things right. I think most Canadians do. Everything that we say the average person might understand. When you start to peel away the onion you can start to see that a lot of the arguments are based simply on a foundation of quicksand. I don't think that's fair; I don't think that's right. I think there's a moral obligation on the part of the leaders of this country to treat our citizens with a lot more respect and provide us really truthful, rigorous, detailed, and appropriate answers, not be glibly trying to defend things that are frankly, from my view, indefensible.
Conservative
