Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning. Thank you to all the witnesses for your attendance today.
My first line of questioning will be for the Auditor General's team. Anyone can answer.
A couple of weeks ago, in mid-March, we heard from both Darren Anthony and Kristian Firth, the two principal owners of GC Strategies, also known as “Government of Canada strategies”, who picked apart the findings in the Auditor General's report.
Specifically, Mr. Firth said his reputation had been damaged by “false information” in what he called an “inaccurate” report by the AG and that—quoting—“virtually everything reported about my company in the media and stated about me and my company has been false.” He said that his company was paid $11 million for the ArriveCAN, disputing the Auditor General's findings that GC Strategies received almost double that, $19 million. He blamed the discrepancy on flaws in the government's financial systems.
We then heard from his partner, Darren Anthony, who, surprisingly, simply parroted everything that his partner had said. He didn't even take the time to actually read your report and didn't take the time to read the report of the procurement ombudsman, but had no problem stating that everything was categorically false. Specifically, he said the Auditor General's findings were inaccurate. He said that the reports from both the AG and the procurement ombudsman, which found serious problems with ArriveCAN contracts, were wrong and admitted again that he had not read the report.
I'm sure this is not the first time that the AG's team has learned about these particular statements. I'd like to provide an opportunity for you to respond on how you feel about these particular statements.