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
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
Can you get back to us with exactly what envelope that $122,000 came from?
Secondly, was there any exchange or discussion as to whether it would come from your political budget or from the Department of Finance budget?
Conservative
Jim Flaherty Conservative Whitby—Oshawa, ON
There's an exempt staff budget and then there's the departmental budget.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
Assuming it came from the departmental budget, does your exempt staff have authority and power to grant contracts from moneys coming from the departmental budget?
Conservative
Jim Flaherty Conservative Whitby—Oshawa, ON
I don't think so. I haven't been involved in the relationship between the department and my staff about who pays what and who contracts for what, but I will check and see what goes on.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
If you could clarify that.... Is two weeks fine with you, Mr. Flaherty, to get back to us?
Bloc
Jean-Yves Laforest Bloc Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
I will be brief, Mr. Chair. The question you just asked raises another. Can we obtain the documents produced by a firm such as MacPhie & Company to gain a good understanding of the process and the value of the contract? There were focus groups, analyses were done. Can the Standing Committee on Public Accounts obtain these documents?
Liberal
Bloc
Jean-Yves Laforest Bloc Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
The reports produced by MacPhie & Company for the Department of Finance are public documents. Can we obtain them from the Department? The company produced analyses. Mr. MacPhie told us he carried out surveys in Montreal and other cities. There must be reports of the meetings these four individuals in question held. If it is public, we should be able to obtain the information. Can we write the deputy minister a letter asking him to provide this information?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
It would appear to me, Mr. Laforest, that what we're talking about is advice to ministers, and that's something we don't have the power to get before the committee. The final documents, the budget, the budget speech, and analysis are all public documents. We are going to get the contract from Mr. MacPhie, and perhaps I'll get another undertaking from the minister.
If for some reason Mr. MacPhie is not diligent in giving us the contract, Mr. Minister, can we get your undertaking to provide us the MacPhie contract? That's a normal request by the committee.
Conservative
Jim Flaherty Conservative Whitby—Oshawa, ON
There may be a privacy concern with that. I'll check on that. As long as it's okay with Mr. MacPhie, I'd be happy to provide it.
Liberal
Borys Wrzesnewskyj Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
Yes, along similar lines followed by Mr. Laforest, there are a number of e-mails dealing with the MacPhie contract that I've used as background information. I'd like to table those documents with the committee so that there's an opportunity to translate them and to distribute them to all committee members.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
We'll accept them. I'll instruct the clerk to have them translated, and they will be circulated to all members of the committee.
That concludes the meeting. On behalf of the members of the committee, Mr. Flaherty, I want to thank you very much for your appearance here today.
The meeting is adjourned.