Evidence of meeting #109 for Public Accounts in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was dalian.
A video is available from Parliament.
Business Owner, Dalian Enterprises Inc.
Yes. In normal circumstances, the prime contractor and the subcontractor have the relationship. If there are other things happening below that, then we have no influence on that.
NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
Considering you're engaged in the same project, it seems unlikely that you did not have knowledge that GC Strategies had this sophisticated layer of task authorizations that hid the actual work that these subcontractors were doing, including your company.
I'll ask one more time: What does your company do? What did you do other than hiring other subcontractors?
Business Owner, Dalian Enterprises Inc.
It's a normal course of action for general contractors. You can find that in any [Inaudible—Editor]
Business Owner, Dalian Enterprises Inc.
What do I do other than that? Hmm. I'm trying to get to that.
When it comes to what we do, this was asked of me at the OGGO committee as well, and I'm sure that's—
Business Owner, Dalian Enterprises Inc.
It happens with every company across the entire country.
NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
No, this happens with your company. I'm asking about your company, sir. What does your company actually do?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Mr. Desjarlais, I'm giving the floor to Mr. Yeo for an answer, but your time is up. Please don't interrupt.
Mr. Yeo, I'll allow you to answer, and then we'll move on to the next person.
Business Owner, Dalian Enterprises Inc.
For every general contractor with the government, whether it is TBIPS contracts, PS Online or TSPS, it doesn't matter. We are the general contractor and the prime contractor for the government. We hire subcontractors to do the work. What we do is contract management, not the actual work.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Thank you very much.
Mr. Genuis, you have the floor for five minutes, please.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Thank you, Chair.
Mr. Yeo, it's good to see you again. You testified before Parliament on October 31 of last year. I did ask you at the time what you would say you do here. In one answer you gave in the course of that round, you said, “I am an executive on the board of directors for Dalian, and I maintain all of the governance as it relates to the PSAB”.
Mr. Yeo, was that the truth as of October 31, 2023?
Business Owner, Dalian Enterprises Inc.
Mr. Chair, if I could just make a correction, it's Mr. Yeo, not Yao.
Conservative
Business Owner, Dalian Enterprises Inc.
I will answer you, for sure.
It ends up that we were in that time frame of dealing with lawyers and I had been in a director role for the company—
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Sir, on October 31, you were before this committee. You answered my question in a particular way. Was what you said to the committee then assembled on October 31 the truth?
Business Owner, Dalian Enterprises Inc.
At that time, there was no divestiture because we were working on it, and also I had put in a—
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Were you “an executive on the board of directors for Dalian”? Were you the one who maintained “all of the governance” on October 31? Was that true? Yes or no?
Business Owner, Dalian Enterprises Inc.
That's the answer you're looking for, so I'm going to give it to you.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
No, sir. I'm looking for the true answer—
Conservative
Business Owner, Dalian Enterprises Inc.
We were in flux during that time period in order to.... Obviously, we had 60 days to get everything done and we did that with Dalian and got our non-disclosure in and our no-access agreement during that period.