Evidence of meeting #17 for Public Accounts in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was contracts.
A recording is available from Parliament.
1:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
I want to thank you very much.
This is just a matter of housekeeping. Mr. Stevenson, could I get a commitment that you will file your action plan with the committee?
1:15 p.m.
Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Infrastructure and Environment, Department of National Defence
Yes, Mr. Chairman. And like my colleagues, I would also like to thank the committee and all the members for their interest in this, and the Auditor General, again, for this audit, which has raised some significant issues that we are working to address.
1:15 p.m.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
On a point of order, paragraph 1.82, which says, “The RCMP is the only organization of those we looked at where we found mechanisms for monitoring security in contracting”, is on page 27 of the Auditor General's report. Page 4 was the analyst's report.
Thank you.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
John Williams Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
[Inaudible--Editor]...consideration too, Mr. Chairman?
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
I don't think they exist any more, Mr. Williams.
I want to again thank you very much for your appearance here today. It has been a good meeting. There is a certain amount of follow-up. The committee will write a report and file it in the House of Commons in due course.
Thank you very much.
Okay, we're going to pause just for 20 seconds here and reopen in camera.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
John Williams Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
We are going in camera to discuss a steering committee report. Is there a rationale for doing that? We normally do these in public.
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
We can stay public, yes.
The only matter of business, colleagues, is the minutes from the subcommittee on agenda and procedure that was held yesterday, and those minutes have been circulated. There are 10 points.
Go ahead, Mr. Poilievre.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Mr. Williams has just taken my copy.
Mr. Chair, I note that--
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Just so we are clear, this meeting is not in camera.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Mr. Chair, I thank you for giving me the floor.
I note that the steering committee concluded that this committee should authorize the clerk to use a private investigator to locate Mr. Jean-Marc Bard. Am I reading that correctly?
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
It would authorize the clerk to use what I would refer to as a locator firm.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
Mr. Poilievre, just to elaborate--I might even get the clerk to speak on this--I don't think we do a good job locating people. We use the services of the bailiff, and he has access to the Ontario driver's licence but not to any Quebec information. Under a locator firm, they would have access to seven different public documents, and this would be a quick turnaround.
So we would try that first and then see where that leads us in this particular case.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Okay. But at this point we haven't been able to locate him, so we're engaging a professional firm to seek him out, track him down, and hopefully bring him in.
1:15 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
No, that is not quite correct.
I want to clarify the record here. There's nothing we've seen that would indicate that he's avoiding us. We just can't locate him. He may be avoiding us, but so far there's nothing to suggest that he is.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
What about Dog, the bounty hunter? Could he be retained?
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
Dog's jurisdiction is only in the United States. He doesn't take assignments in Canada.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Okay. So we've not been able to locate Mr. Bard to date.
On the subject of Mr. Alfonso Gagliano, he's refused to come in person? Is that the latest?
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
No, he hasn't refused. He's asked if he could do it via video conference.
1:20 p.m.
Conservative
1:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
It's only $200. It's basically just checking seven different indices. I would assume it's housing records, driver's licence, etc.
1:20 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
That might be a little bit too modest, $200, if we've been trying to track this guy down for 18 months.