You went on sick leave.
Evidence of meeting #49 for Public Accounts in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was zaccardelli.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #49 for Public Accounts in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was zaccardelli.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:55 p.m.
Conservative
5:55 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
You've been on sick leave right up until the time that you were hired in this position you're in now?
5:55 p.m.
As an Individual
No. I was retired for two years before.... I'm a retired person. I was off for two years. I was basically doing other things. I've just been in this position for three weeks.
5:55 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
You were paid on sick leave until when?
5:55 p.m.
As an Individual
I was paid on sick leave right to the end, when I retired. There was a suspension letter given. I challenged the suspension, it was reversed, and I continued on sick leave. I did not lose a day's pay or benefit.
5:55 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
Just for the record, Mr. Ewanovich, you testified your situation was different. You actually quit on November 23. You said you got no package.
5:55 p.m.
As an Individual
No. I stepped down from my position in October. I started to work on a project until January. It became evident that it wasn't particularly functional, so I made the decision that I would, with Barbara George, proceed to pension on April 1, which I did--actually, April 2.
6 p.m.
Conservative
6 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
So you were still on....
The lofty statement that you made earlier, though, was that you were accountable—
6 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
You stayed in a paid position, though, with the RCMP. Is that correct?
April 16th, 2007 / 6 p.m.
As an Individual
And I retired April 1. That's right, but I stepped down from a very senior position, and quite frankly, that's a rather traumatic and difficult decision to make.
6 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
Mr. Zaccardelli, you testified that you had had a conversation with Fraser Macaulay and that he had told you that he knew for a long time about the irregularities in the pension fund. What was the date of that conversation you had with Mr. Macaulay?
6 p.m.
Former Commissioner, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, As an Individual
I don't recall the exact date, but it was the date that Barb George came to see me and said, “I think you should speak to Fraser. Do you want to speak to him about the pension issue?”
She brought him in. The three of us sat down, and then I went through the series of questions. One of the questions was, “How long have you known?” He said, “I've known for almost a year and a half.”
“Why didn't you do anything about it?” He said, “I was concerned about my career, because Mr. Ewanovich was my boss.”
6 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
This was the time when the audit had already been completed?
6 p.m.
Former Commissioner, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, As an Individual
Yes, this was after I had taken the decision, based on Mr. Lewis's complaints, to do the audit. The audit was already in progress. Subsequent to that, Chief Superintendent Macaulay sent me a correspondence on July 4, I believe, in which he reiterates that he shares my concerns for what's happened and he agrees with my decision to do an audit, which is somewhat contrary to the statement he made at this committee on March 28. Here he said, "...any reasonable person would have suspected criminal activity”. So there seems to be inconsistency in what he says in the document that he sent to me and the document to the chief auditor, in which he supports the audit. As a matter of fact, in one of the documents he recommends that a second audit be done in order to get to the bottom of this. I totally agreed. We needed an audit to verify these allegations.
6 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
Speaking of that, Mr. Zaccardelli, the audit was to cover how long a period of time?
6 p.m.
Former Commissioner, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, As an Individual
The audit was based on the complaints that Mr. Lewis had made to me. Nepotism, contracts—
6 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
Just the terms of reference for this—
6 p.m.
Former Commissioner, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, As an Individual
No, it was to look at everything in—
6 p.m.
Conservative
6 p.m.
Former Commissioner, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, As an Individual
I don't believe it had a...actually, it was open-ended, because I wanted to get to the bottom of this. I made that the number one priority audit in the force that same day, and it was the day that Mr. Lewis came to see me.
6 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
Do you mean you don't recall the terms of reference, or you're not familiar with the terms of reference?