Evidence of meeting #113 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 cbsa.
A video is available from Parliament.
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
It was through the cloud framework agreements.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Okay. Did you do any subcontracting with GC Strategies, also known as Government of Canada Strategies, or Dalian or Coradix?
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
We have no relationship with GC Strategies. We have a past relationship with Dalian.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Let's talk about Dalian. Bill Curry, a reporter for The Globe and Mail, last Saturday, April 6, wrote a story. The heading was “Beneath ArriveCAN” and contained within that article is a quote. I'm going to read it out:
Dalian's website gives the impression that it is an independent company. It describes itself as “Aboriginally Owned - Veteran Operated,” and lists several global tech giants as vendors, including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Dell Technologies.
How many contracts did you have with Dalian?
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
Between two and three, I'm not sure exactly.
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
The value? If I can explain the relationship with Dalian, the original mandate that we worked on with Dalian was that we worked for Dalian specifically. That was related to a migration project for the benefit of CBSA.
Conservative
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
That goes back to—
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
I don't need to know all those specifics. Two to three, what is it? Two or three contracts with Dalian?
Nick Markou Head of Professional Services, Canada Public Sector, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
I can provide clarity on this. There were three contracts. One of the contracts was a zero dollar amendment to the end date of the contract.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Okay, so Dalian is the contractor, you're the subcontractor. The value of the two contracts was how much?
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
We were not a subcontractor.
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
Dalian was our customer. We were not a subcontractor to Dalian.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Dalian was your customer, but Dalian was working with the Government of Canada.
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
To be clear, Dalian was our customer. We did understand that the work was for the benefit of CBSA but it was not a subcontract.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Okay, I'm not going to get into semantics. The ultimate benefactor of your work was the Government of Canada, specifically CBSA.
Let's get to the answer now to my question. What was the value of the two contracts that you worked on with Dalian?
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
The total value of the work that we undertook with Dalian, I believe, was $1.1 million.
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
For all of the work we did with Dalian.
Conservative
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
We never worked with GC Strategies.
Conservative
Director, Global Artificial Intelligence and Canada Public Policy, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
Of the ones that you've listed?