Evidence of meeting #32 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 contract.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
John McCallum Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
And when you say “they” approached you, who approached you?
Liberal
John McCallum Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
Now, can I ask you, in terms of your relationship with Mr. Flaherty before he entered federal politics—I understand it was a long one and that you were involved in his leadership campaign at the Ontario level—can you describe the nature or the depth of that relationship?
As an Individual
I thank you for the question.
I would describe it as a business relationship. As I believe is a matter of the public record, I was employed at Queen's Park in the premier's office at the same time that Mr. Flaherty was serving in Mr. Harris's cabinet and in the Conservative caucus. At that time I didn't have very frequent interaction with Mr. Flaherty.
My first real interaction with Mr. Flaherty, as I believe is also a matter of the public record, was on his first leadership, where I did volunteer for that. I was not involved in his second leadership. That was at a time when my first son Jackson had been born and we were working on building our business. While I encourage all kinds of people to be involved in the political process, at that time my focus was not on politics, but other things.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
Thank you, Mr. MacPhie.
Monsieur Lussier or Monsieur Laforest, who is going—
Bloc
Jean-Yves Laforest Bloc Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
I will start, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. MacPhie, you were given eight contracts over a one-year period from three different departments. In response to a question by Mr. McCallum, you stated earlier on that you remember one contract. You had a four-person team and you worked from home. It is a communications company called MacPhie & Company.
Is it indeed a communications company?
Bloc
Jean-Yves Laforest Bloc Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
First of all, did you bring these contracts to completion? Did you work on all eight contracts?
As an Individual
Just to clarify the question, is the honourable member asking whether or not I was involved with the administration of the contracts or the work being done once we were engaged by—
Bloc
As an Individual
Okay, thank you.
To answer the honourable member's question, it depends. There were some times when I was the primary person working on the contract. At other times it would have been other members of our staff. We will inevitably, given that we are small, share the workload as best we can, based on the skill sets of the members of our team, in order to deliver to the best of our ability to our clients, as we did in each of these cases.
Bloc
Jean-Yves Laforest Bloc Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
We do not have much time.
I consider that if the Minister of Finance calls on a company to carry out one or several contracts, which is the case, it must be a company that is rather well established in its field and has a great deal of credibility.
Who are your other clients, generally speaking? That is my final question.
Conservative
John Williams Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
Mr. Chair, I don't think that's an appropriate question, given that he's in the private sector.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
You want to know who his other clients are? No, I think that would be out of order, Mr. Laforest. If it's federal government...but no, we're not going to get into who his private clients are.
As an Individual
Mr. Chairman, with permission, I would be happy to.... In management consulting what's often done on questions like this is to describe the overall--
Bloc
Jean-Yves Laforest Bloc Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
Mr. Chairman, I will word my question differently. You were granted contracts worth $320,000 for one year. What are your annual sales?
As an Individual
I appreciate the question. I will answer the question.
Let me begin with our work with the Department of Finance. Our work with the federal government generally is a fraction of our overall business. And to correct the record, the time of our contract was more than just one year. It actually would have begun sometime in 2006, and it would have--
Bloc
Jean-Yves Laforest Bloc Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
You're not answering my question, sir. What are your total billings for one year, and namely for the year when you received $320,000 worth of contracts?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
Mr. Laforest, it's not proper to ask him what his total billings are for his individual clients.