Evidence of meeting #57 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 rcmp.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Commissioner Paul Gauvin  Deputy Commissioner, Corporate Management and Comptrollership, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Commissioner John Spice  Assistant Commissioner (Retired), Royal Canadian Mounted Police, As an Individual
Keith Estabrooks  As an Individual
Sergeant André Girard  Staff sergeant, Criminal Intelligence & Analysis Section, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Pierre Lavoie  Superintendent (Retired), Royal Canadian Mounted Police, As an Individual
Steven Chaplin  Principal Parliamentary Counsel (Legal), Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, House of Commons
Ron Lewis  Staff Sergeant (Retired), Royal Canadian Mounted Police, As an Individual
Bernie Corrigan  As an Individual

5:40 p.m.

Bloc

Jean-Yves Roy Bloc Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC

But that's the problem. It's not because the document had the word "secret" stamped on it... It was classified "secret" for the Ottawa police, but not for the RCMP. Even if it was marked "secret", it had become an RCMP document, and thus it was up to the RCMP to decide how it should be classified. The Ottawa police is not responsible for making that decision on behalf of the RCMP. That is what I am trying to explain.

5:40 p.m.

Supt Pierre Lavoie

But—

5:40 p.m.

Bloc

Jean-Yves Roy Bloc Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC

I'm really having trouble understanding what you're saying.

Do I still have some time, Mr. Chairman?

5:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy

You may ask one more question.

5:40 p.m.

Bloc

Jean-Yves Roy Bloc Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC

I would like to come back to Mr. Spice. I would like you to confirm what you were saying. You said that this is how things are done in some organizations. I would like to say—and this is a personal remark—that what you are saying is wrong. Things are done that way at the RCMP and in some military-type organizations. When there is abuse, that means there is abuse in the system. But things are not done that way in all organizations; that is not true. Things are not done that way throughout the pubic service. They are done that way at the RCMP because the RCMP is a military-type organization, and the RCMP's image must be protected in every circumstance. That is the problem.

5:40 p.m.

A/Commr John Spice

Well, you're entitled to disagree.

What I'm saying is that every organization is subject to the same frailties, I suppose, of human behaviour. The RCMP has had issues around abuse of power and authority. It's had issues around harassment. I've dealt with many of those in my 21 months as ethics adviser, but I was also a commanding officer of a division and an officer commanding a subdivision and an officer in charge of several branches. I can tell you, you can resolve issues very informally if you have good communication skills and a willingness to do that. I'm not convinced, in this particular instance, that the issues brought forward by Ms. Revine were dealt with in that fashion. In regard to the individual she was reporting—that being Mr. Crupi—and the irregularities, and so forth, she felt she was out there on her own, with the exception of Mr. Macaulay.

We shouldn't feel that way. If you feel that way in the environment you're working in, then, damn it, there's something the matter with the environment, there's something the matter with the individuals who are placed in positions of power, like Mr. Crupi. How did that come to pass? Why didn't anyone ever recognize the fact that the man was a tyrant? It came down to the fact he was marching to the drum of Mr. Ewanovich, who wanted to advance HR programs, and as a consequence of that they used whatever moneys were available. In this case, they took fence money from the pension fund and 2020, and used it to move forward certain programs. You can't tell me that Mr. Ewanovich was unaware of that. He had conversations with Mr. Crupi on a regular basis. Did the commissioner know? I'm not sure, but I know that I had conversations with the commissioner relative to that particular issue, the issue of behaviour as it related to both Crupi and Ewanovich. I can go into great detail, if you would like, on some of those conversations.

Did I answer your question?

5:45 p.m.

Bloc

Jean-Yves Roy Bloc Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC

Yes, you answered it very well.

5:45 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy

Merci, Monsieur Roy.

Thank you, Mr. Spice.

Mr. Fitzpatrick, for five minutes.

May 14th, 2007 / 5:45 p.m.

Conservative

Brian Fitzpatrick Conservative Prince Albert, SK

I think I'll just take up that point and maybe pursue some questions with the person who was the chief financial officer for the RCMP while this was all going on, the dealings between Mr. Ewanovich and Mr. Crupi, and so on.

Mr. Gauvin, these are yes or no questions. I don't want speeches.

The decision to apply that to the premiums—the $570,000, and so on, on which you had legal opinions and other things, so that you couldn't put it here and you couldn't put there—did you have any legal opinions advising you about the legality of charging against premiums?

5:45 p.m.

D/Commr Paul Gauvin

We had a legal opinion that said we couldn't charge it to appropriations—

5:45 p.m.

Conservative

Brian Fitzpatrick Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Yes or no?

5:45 p.m.

D/Commr Paul Gauvin

—or pensions.

5:45 p.m.

Conservative

Brian Fitzpatrick Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Okay, that's what I was looking for.

The Great-West one, as well, did you have a legal opinion saying it was okay?

5:45 p.m.

D/Commr Paul Gauvin

Well, the legal opinion applied to all of them.

5:45 p.m.

Conservative

Brian Fitzpatrick Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Pardon?

5:45 p.m.

D/Commr Paul Gauvin

The legal opinion would have applied to all of those expenses.

5:45 p.m.

Conservative

Brian Fitzpatrick Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Okay.

Now, I'm in a real mushy area with some of your answers in a certain area here, and I'd like some clarity, so I'm going to give you some room to clarify this.

In one breath, you told me that you'd told this committee that Crupi was into Public Works, and I didn't really have to worry about that because Public Works would take care of it. At another hearing, you told us you had cancelled Dominic Crupi's ability to contract, and you really didn't know he was doing these things.

Now, which is it? Is it that you were confident that Public Works would have the checks and balances to control Mr. Crupi, or was it the answer you gave before, that you had cancelled his contract and privileges and you just didn't know that he was doing this? It was only $6 million. You knew all about the $580,000 and all the charging and re-entries, and so on, but $6 million could flow right through Mr. Crupi in contracts to this network he had created, and you didn't....

What's your answer to that?

5:45 p.m.

D/Commr Paul Gauvin

Well, first of all, we did take his authority away. But going to another government department is not the same authority. Basically, going to Public Works is the way to go when you want to have contracts, because they are the experts. They have a large number of people who are specialists in that.

5:45 p.m.

Conservative

Brian Fitzpatrick Conservative Prince Albert, SK

I just want to be clear on that. It's again a bit of a mushy answer. It seemed to me you told me that you had found out that Crupi was doing things that you weren't happy about, so you took away his contracting powers.

5:45 p.m.

D/Commr Paul Gauvin

Yes.

5:45 p.m.

Conservative

Brian Fitzpatrick Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Was that for everything, or just some things?

5:45 p.m.

D/Commr Paul Gauvin

That was for all the contracting authority within the RCMP.

5:45 p.m.

Conservative

Brian Fitzpatrick Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Okay, well, let's quit dancing around that one, then, sir.

5:45 p.m.

D/Commr Paul Gauvin

If I can continue for one second, sir, the authority for contracting in Public Works is not the RCMP's authority, it's Public Works' authority. When we go over there for a contract, we expect them to do their work.

5:45 p.m.

Conservative

Brian Fitzpatrick Conservative Prince Albert, SK

The $6 million was coming out of the RCMP. There's no disagreement on that.