The decisions around this contract on both occasions when the competitive process went ahead occurred and were made by government officials at a bureaucratic level and possibly, though we haven't proven it, at a political level. But Ms. Buckler was not in the government. She was not involved in the government decision. She was a lobbyist, as thousands of people are, but in this case she was a lobbyist for one of the firms that were competing.
We have here, from this letter, information that she met with a couple of MPs. I don't know about the rest of you, but the same thing is happening every day with both Envoy and Royal LePage having their lobbyists call our office, send us letters, and ask for meetings. That's what lobbyists do. I don't know what would be untoward about having a meeting with two different MPs or what would be unusual about that, given that there are two firms competing rather ferociously for this government business.
Other than the fact that she's now in the Prime Minister's Office, I don't know what makes her more interesting to this committee than the rest of the lobbyists who have been working on this file, and there have been many. They're here in the room every day we hold these hearings. I don't know why we're not calling them.
Perhaps it's not politically useful to the Bloc to have those other lobbyists up on the panel because they're not currently attached to this government, but frankly this government hasn't even made any decisions on the relocation contract, so she would not, as a member of the government, have been involved in any way, shape, or form in decision-making regarding the relocation contract. The only thing she's done—and this happened after the contract was awarded—was meet with a couple of MPs. Why that merits the committee's time, I don't know. But if we're going to have her, I guess we should get on to calling every single member of the lobbying teams of both Envoy and Royal LePage to find out all of their activities and ask them what they were doing and why they were involved. I don't see how she is relevant to this matter any more than the other dozens of lobbyists who have been involved in this matter going back several years, and I don't think the Bloc has shown it. The Bloc has shown that it would be politically interesting to bring the Prime Minister's communications director before the committee. The Bloc has not shown in any way, shape, or form that she is germane to our proceedings.
Thank you.