Public Accounts Committee on May 30th, 2024

[Barry Dowdall]

The only ones we would have had would have been possible sole sources under $40,000. That's the only thing we've had. Everything else we've competed for in a typical RFP process.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Ms. Sinclair‑Desgagné, you have time to ask one last question,

[Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, Bloc, Terrebonne, QC]

No, I'm done.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Desjarlais, you have the floor for two and a half minutes, please.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Did KPMG employees who worked on ArriveCAN receive a valid security clearance?

[Lydia Lee]

Thank you for the member's question. I'll comment on the Public Health Agency related work.

All of the staff who worked on the ArriveCAN program did, yes. For the Public Health Agency, we had all the proper security clearance. We required reliability for those contracts.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

At which level did they receive clearance?

[Lydia Lee]

For the Public Health Agency work, we were required to have reliability security clearance. All of our resources had that—reliability or higher. I myself have secret security clearance.

[Imraan Bashir]

If you don't mind me adding, for the cybersecurity assessment work, just to reiterate what I said earlier, I had a mix of some secret-cleared people who were doing more of the hands-on work, with the rest of the staff at the reliability level.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Did KPMG at any time share the results of the security vulnerability assessment with GC Strategies?

[Imraan Bashir]

No.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Did it share them in any capacity—sharing of reports, potential vulnerabilities found in the assessment, incident response plans or any information, even if it was meeting in a lobby, Mr. Bashir?

[Imraan Bashir]

Thank you for the member's question.

All of our results were shared directly with the CBSA, but I can't speak to who they shared them with after that.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Moving on to intellectual property, does KPMG consider any algorithm it produces for the government, in particular ArriveCAN, its intellectual property?

[Lydia Lee]

Thank you for the member's question.

I'll just clarify that for work related to the Public Health Agency, we did not develop any algorithms.

[Imraan Bashir]

Similarly, when you say “algorithm”, I just want to clarify that KPMG didn't create or edit any code for the ArriveCAN app. Our work was more of an assessment after the code was developed to confirm that the code complied with the Government of Canada's security standards and policies.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

I understand.

I'll ask the same question regarding security clearances for TEK and Donna Cona. Did you receive security clearances for all those employees who worked on the ArriveCAN app?

[Christopher Loschmann]

Yes, we validate the security clearance of all the professionals we place with the government.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

What about Donna Cona? Did they have security clearance?

[Barry Dowdall]

We would have security clearance for everybody.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you. That is your time.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Mr. Nater, you have the floor for five minutes, please.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

It's too bad that the Liberal national caucus chair doesn't like our questions, but unfortunately, the government failed. We have to ask questions on behalf of Canadians so that taxpayer money is properly spent.

Mr. Bashir, you mentioned that you would have briefed your leadership team on your meetings with GC Strategies. Who were the members that you would have briefed on those meetings?

[Imraan Bashir]

As I mentioned earlier, given the time frame, it likely would have been Marc Brouillard.