Public Accounts Committee on March 19th, 2024

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

This leads me to believe that, including in the motion made by our colleague to refer this to INAN for further investigation, we should confirm, by way of letter, Mr. Chair, to you, the nature of the PSAB contract policy, and refer that with the motion. It will help the officials a great deal, because they're not used to this kind of stuff, I don't think.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Are you proposing a suggestion to the Chair, or an amendment to the motion?

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

It's not an amendment. It's a suggestion to the Chair. If this motion passes—

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Let's cross one thing at a time. I hear what you're saying.

Mrs. Shanahan.

[Brenda Shanahan, Liberal, Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC]

Chair, I would like to speak to this motion, but I'd also like to have just five minutes, so we can discuss it. Again, this goes to show that this is a committee that's working together. We find elements of this motion very interesting, but we'd like to discuss it with the members, so we can come to something pretty—

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Yes. I will suspend for five minutes maximum. In the meantime, we'll try to get additional resources.

Mr. Yeo, I'm going to have to ask you just to kind of hold firm for a little while longer, because we might come back to you with some questions from just one last member.

I'll suspend for five minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

I call our session back to order.

Mrs. Shanahan, I believe you were first on the speaking list on the motion that is before us.

[Brenda Shanahan, Liberal, Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC]

Thank you, Chair, for giving us those five minutes to speak with all colleagues, because I think it's pretty clear that the testimony we heard today is leading us all in this direction—to have a request for further investigation by INAN.

I think the wording of the motion is satisfactory to us, but I don't know if my colleague has something he wants to add.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Mr. Desjarlais, I see your hand.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

To Mrs. Shanahan's point—and to your point, Mr. Chair—it's actually in relation to the content of the letter contained within the motion. I'm not sure if you want to hear my advice on that now or after the vote.

I believe the letter sent to INAN should include the PSAB policy, so they understand this is our concern—that there is a significant breach of what is in the policy.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

My preference is this: By coincidence, we have a subcommittee meeting on Thursday. Let's bring it up then. We can probably even get some language drafted by the researcher before that. Then we can look at it. I will certainly incorporate the views of all members, given that I hope it's going to be a unanimous motion.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 10; nays 0)

Thank you very much. That concludes this bit of business.

I'm going back to finishing up with our questions.

Mr. Yeo, I'm going to call you back up for your presence.

Ms. Yip, you have the last round of five minutes. It's over to you.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I'll be sharing my time with Mrs. Shanahan.

Mr. Yeo, you said repeatedly that DND said there was no conflict, and you keep talking about this document.

Can you provide a copy to the committee?

[David Yeo]

I see in the papers that DND made a statement indicating there was no conflict. It's a protected B document, but I have no issues with supplying you with anything.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Okay.

Do you think there is anything wrong with the Auditor General's report on ArriveCAN?

[David Yeo]

It's a good report, but they had trouble putting this together because of the exact nature of how contracting works with TBIPS and SBIPS in professional services. They're all staff augmentation contracts. There potentially could be direct contracts for ArriveCAN only, so they have a challenge against them in trying to decipher all of this data.

Even though we sent an email back to the Auditor General on January 30 indicating that the $4.9 million versus $7.9 million attributed to ArriveCAN.... They themselves have even attributed to.... In paragraph 1.21 on page 5, they indicated that CBSA “expressed concerns that $12.2 million of the $59.5-million estimate could be unrelated to ArriveCAN.”

It's a challenging report, and it was a challenging effort to put it together.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Regarding your time in Afghanistan, how long were you there?

[David Yeo]

I was there for four months.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

What was your role there?

[David Yeo]

I was delivering a high-assurance security capability to Kandahar and to all of the forward operating bases out in Afghanistan.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Can you tell me what that means?

[David Yeo]

Basically, our effort was to ensure that all the pieces and parts were in place so all of our coalition members knew exactly where our friendly forces were, along with a couple of other capabilities.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Thank you.

It's over to you, Mrs. Shanahan.

[Brenda Shanahan, Liberal, Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC]

Thank you very much.

I have a few more questions, Mr. Yeo, to clarify who you are, your background and so on.

How long have you been a member of the Conservative Party?

[David Yeo]

Well, I've been a member for my entire life. I've always voted Progressive Conservative. At the same time, I believe my last membership was for five years, after my very short stint with the PPC. I came back to the party.

[Brenda Shanahan, Liberal, Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC]

You did show a card at some point. Can you just show that—