Evidence of meeting #122 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 documents.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

John Ossowski  As an Individual

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative John Williamson

Mr. Brock, your time is up. I gave you more time, because you're trying to get information.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON

Thank you.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative John Williamson

I allowed that, and I will allow the witness to answer, but then we'll go to Ms. Yip.

11:35 a.m.

As an Individual

John Ossowski

Mr. Chair, I am here as an individual. I'm sure Ms. O'Gorman has officials watching the testimony today who are taking note of the request.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative John Williamson

Thank you very much.

Ms. Yip, you have the floor for five minutes, please.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order in follow-up to Mr. Brock's questions.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative John Williamson

Yes, go ahead.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB

Mr. Ossowski repeatedly gave the answer that he has no recollection of that. I assume there would be agreement from the committee to ask him to provide clear yes-or-no answers on the matters he claimed to have no recollection of and to follow—

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative John Williamson

Mr. Genuis, you're a skilled parliamentarian. Witnesses are here to answer questions, and members are free to pose them. I cannot compel answers. If there's business to take up later, we can do that.

I'm going to turn now to Ms. Yip for—

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON

On a point of order, Chair, the chairs of standing committees can certainly compel answers from witnesses.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative John Williamson

Pardon me. We are getting answers from the witness. If you don't like them, we can take it up later.

I'm going to turn now to Ms. Yip.

You have the floor for five minutes, please.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON

Thank you.

Mr. Ossowski, I believe you wanted to provide us with clarification during Mrs. Block's questions.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative John Williamson

Just one second, please.

Was that clear for everyone? It sounded awfully low, so I want to make sure. Could you hear Ms. Yip okay, Mr. Ossowski?

11:35 a.m.

As an Individual

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative John Williamson

Thank you very much.

I stopped the clock. You have four minutes and 45 seconds.

Go ahead, please, sir.

11:35 a.m.

As an Individual

John Ossowski

Just to go over this again, when I initially replied to Mr. Barrett's question in December 2022, I did so as an individual, with no support from the department and with no access to my information.

Mr. Curry subsequently found out that there was another meeting completely unrelated to ArriveCAN. I immediately came to the committee and offered my apologies for not having had the agency validate my testimony. I had no recollection of Mr. Firth's attending that virtual Teams meeting, which had nothing to do with ArriveCAN. I was not an employee of the agency at that time, so I was not paid to do anything at that point in time. It was a correction to an error in terms of what I recalled, and that's the end of the story. It's nothing more than that.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON

Did you work directly with Diane Daly?

11:35 a.m.

As an Individual

John Ossowski

I have no recollection of working directly with Diane Daly. She was in the information, science and technology branch.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON

Do you know if she was involved in procurement or contracting decisions?

11:35 a.m.

As an Individual

John Ossowski

I know that only from what has been revealed in testimony.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON

Did you learn anything new from, or were you at all surprised by, any of Kristian Firth's responses before the House last month?

11:35 a.m.

As an Individual

John Ossowski

I have many thoughts on Mr. Firth's response and his appearance before the House, but none of them are of relevance to this committee.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON

Would you like to share some thoughts?

11:35 a.m.

As an Individual

John Ossowski

I'm fine. Thank you.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON

When did you begin working for PricewaterhouseCoopers?