Good morning.
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for welcoming me here today.
My name is Guy Ouimet. I am originally from Montreal, where I still live. I'm an industrial engineer, hold an MBA and am certified by the Institute of Corporate Directors.
For most of my career, I have worked in venture capital, private placement, project financing and mergers and acquisitions. In this capacity I acted as a senior executive of a private equity firm for 10 years and then launched my private practice in the form of a boutique investment bank. This practice has developed over the years based on my multi-sector and technological expertise, particularly in energy, metals and minerals, chemicals and petrochemicals and the automotive industry, as well as the evolution of these sectors towards decarbonization of the economy. For 25 years, my clients have included government institutional funds as well as numerous private companies. I participated in the setting up of multiple investment projects and transactions. Since 2020, I have been a corporate director exclusively, and currently sit on four boards of directors and committees of private companies.
I joined the board of directors of Sustainable Development Technology Canada, SDTC, on November 8, 2018, following an appointment resulting from my candidacy in a year-long Governor in Council recruitment process. Having no political affiliations and having not requested any references except those required by the validation procedures during the recruitment process, I declared all my background and qualifications. At the conclusion of the Governor in Council process, I was recruited based on my expertise to contribute to SDTC's board of directors.
In addition to being a member of the board of directors, I was a member of the Project Review Committee and the Governance and Nominations Committee. I resigned from the SDTC board of directors on June 3, 2024, following an extension of my mandate.
During the Governor in Council recruitment process, I declared a conflict of interest: Prior to my appointment to the board, I was an adviser to a company that had been approved to receive SDTC funding. Once appointed to the board I discussed this conflict of interest with the chair of the Governance and Nominations Committee. He advised me and I subsequently followed his recommendations, all within the established governance framework. Since my appointment to the board, I have periodically declared all real, apparent or potential conflicts. I have not had access to the files in question and have recused myself from any decision relating thereto.
With respect to the emergency payment made to companies by SDTC during the COVID‑19 pandemic, as already indicated, the board complied with the legal opinion of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, which was based on the prior declaration of conflicts of interest, the urgency of the situation and the universal nature of the measure for which no company benefited from individual treatment. Like the rest of the board of directors, I acted in good faith, in accordance with this opinion.
In 2024, at the request of a member of the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology, the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner conducted an investigation into allegations of conflict of interest against me. Following a thorough investigation of SDTC's corporate emergency payments, and taking into account all of my conflict of interest declarations during my entire term as a director, the commissioner dismissed the allegations of conflict of interest against me in his report, tabled on July 24. In the spring of 2024, the Office of the Auditor General tabled Report 6, which dealt with SDTC. SDTC management accepted the Auditor General's recommendations and was given the opportunity to provide responses, which are presented in an appendix to said report.
Personally, on reading this report, I note that no wrongdoing was identified and that, of the 90 conflict of interest defects, 63 related to a difference in legal opinions on the COVID‑19 pandemic emergency payment, and 13 were due to errors in the minutes of meetings. I also note that the shortcomings in terms of project eligibility and compliance, or governance compliance with funding agreements and the enabling legislation, essentially stem from the government's delay in updating SDTC's legal framework, almost 25 years after its creation, to reflect the restructuring and business plans approved annually by the board of directors, the department and the minister responsible.
The relevance and effectiveness of Sustainable Development Technology Canada has been recognized on several occasions by periodic performance audits. In addition, decarbonization technology entrepreneurs praise its contribution, and venture capitalists regard an SDTC contribution as a preliminary validation for their own investment. These facts are well known in the industry across Canada.
Thank you for your attention. I am available to answer your questions.