Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the members of the committee for inviting us to contribute to this important conversation about our work with the government during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re looking forward to answering your questions.
My name is Lydia Lee, and I am a partner and national leader for digital health transformation at KPMG in Canada. I have more than 25 years of experience in the health care sector, including more than 14 years as a senior leader at a hospital prior to joining KPMG. For much of my career, I have focused on health care transformation, and I am very passionate about helping improve the health and lives of Canadians.
I’m joined today by Hartaj Nijjar, a KPMG partner and national leader for cybersecurity. Hartaj has more than two decades of experience assisting some of the world’s largest organizations in matters relating to cybersecurity.
Together, we are here to represent KPMG Canada, which employs more than 10,000 people across the country. KPMG in Canada is fully owned and operated by Canadians. We have been serving Canadian businesses, organizations and communities across the country for over 150 years. Nearly 80% of our clients are small and medium-sized businesses, which are the backbone of our economy.
Our role is to assist our clients, including governments at the federal, provincial and municipal levels, in identifying and closing strategic and operational gaps by providing specialized knowledge and services in areas where support is required. We consider our services to be an important part of our contribution to Canadian society.
We are known for our tax, advisory and auditing services, and, as you know, we are the auditor for the House of Commons. We also provide a comprehensive range of services that help Canadian businesses address many of the most pressing economic and social challenges we face as a country. Notably, these include public health and cybersecurity, which is why we are here to talk to you today.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government urgently looked for outside expertise and invited vendors to respond to a public request for proposals. KPMG responded by competing in this procurement process and was selected as one of six vendors under the COVID emergency professional services, or CEPS, contracting vehicle. This competitive process and the resulting contract provided government departments and agencies with the ability to engage firms like KPMG for specialized global expertise.
Our engagement with the government during the pandemic included work related to the ArriveCAN program, which fell into two streams. The first, which I led, was for the Public Health Agency of Canada. As we are one of Canada’s largest health care advisory firms, the agency looked to us as it dealt with an unprecedented and rapidly evolving pandemic. In particular, we were asked to provide in-depth subject matter expertise and global knowledge to assist in developing policies and procedures for the implementation of the ArriveCAN program. We analyzed how travellers and government operations would be impacted by the evolving policies, supported extensive stakeholder engagement to solicit feedback on emerging issues, and applied international leading practices to help limit the transmission of COVID-19 to Canadians from international travel at air, land and sea border crossings.
Put simply, when the government decided to make the ArriveCAN application mandatory, we identified and helped address the significant implications of that decision for all Canadians, including travellers, government operations officials and those in the travel industry. All of the services we provided were part of the public procurement process.
The second stream was cybersecurity work, conducted by Mr. Nijjar’s team and subcontracted through GC Strategies on behalf of the CBSA. KPMG is known in the field for having strong expertise in cybersecurity. Between October 2021 and March 2022, KPMG provided an independent cybersecurity assessment of the ArriveCAN application. This assessment included a review of practices, procedures and configurations related to the ArriveCAN mobile app, web portals and cloud hosting environment. Our work was completed on time and on budget and was reviewed and approved by the CBSA.
We are very proud of the services that KPMG provided to assist the government during the pandemic. We delivered highly specialized expertise in a time of unprecedented uncertainty for Canadians and the world. We recognize the importance of the committee’s efforts to review this work and to ensure value for money for Canadians. In each case, we delivered our work on time and on budget using the contracting vehicle identified and directed by the government.
Thank you. We’d be happy to take your questions
