Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Members of the committee, as I'm sure you know, I appeared before the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology for one hour under oath on November 28, 2023. At that time, I answered all questions related to my time on the board of Sustainable Development Technology Canada, or SDTC.
I would remind you that I was appointed by the members of the foundation, under the chairmanship of Jim Balsillie. I was also interviewed by the Auditor General of Canada, who, after conducting a thorough investigation of these same issues, laid no blame on me.
However, I understand that some members of this committee still have questions related to that period. There are two main things they're interested in.
The first is the Canada Infrastructure Bank, or CIB. It has been suggested that I took advantage of my position as an administrator to gain favourable treatment for a project in which Ms. Annette Verschuren was involved, the Oneida Energy Storage LP project. This is false. I provided you with a memo prepared by the CIB's general counsel. That is one of the documents you will be receiving. This memo demonstrates that I complied with all applicable conflict of interest rules during my tenure as a board member. It also highlights, on page 3, that I was absent during the board meeting at which the Oneida project was discussed.
As a result, Mr. Chair, I'm having a hard time understanding the allegations against me on this matter.
The second is allegations relating to SDTC and COVID‑19 relief measures. Some members of this committee claimed that I voted in favour of relief measures for 23 companies linked to 36 potential conflict situations in which Cycle Capital may have had interests. It's very easy to prove this is false, but nobody has bothered to verify.
I would therefore like to take this opportunity to set the record straight. Cycle Capital has never invested a penny in 21 of the 23 companies mentioned.
I declared a potential conflict in connection with these 21 companies when Cycle Capital was considering the possibility of investing in them.
However, Cycle Capital chose not to invest in those 21 companies. We did not invest a single dollar in them, and that was well before the vote on COVID‑19 relief measures. In some cases, it was several years before that vote.
I'm sure you understand that, when there is no investment, there is no conflict of interest. You'll be getting a table I provided that outlines the chronological sequence for all these investments.
This leaves two companies, GreenMantra and MineSense. I followed the rules and filed conflict of interest declarations in connection with these companies in which Cycle Capital did indeed have interests. So why didn't I recuse myself during the vote? There are two reasons.
First, I was unaware that the companies would benefit from these measures. This was at the beginning of the COVID‑19 pandemic, and, as this was an omnibus measure for qualifying companies, no list of potential beneficiaries had been provided to us.
SDTC's legal counsel, a respected senior partner of a major law firm, Ed Vandenberg, informed us that we could not be in a conflict of interest. I'm an engineer, not a lawyer. I trusted Mr. Vandenberg's professional judgment, as did all the other board members, including members of the governance committee.
Mr. Chair, these are the easily verifiable facts on which some committee members are questioning my integrity and tarnishing my reputation, all while carefully remaining under the protection of parliamentary privilege. Their words have consequences. I have received intimidating and threatening messages.
This brings me to my final point, Mr. Chair. Just two weeks ago, a member of this committee said, “A number of board members had a conflict of interest. The one who had the most by far was Andrée-Lise Méthot. Her firm, which she founded, Cycle Capital, has made significant investments—$250 million from the green fund has gone into organizations that Cycle Capital has an investment interest in.”
I've heard other figures over the past few months. Apparently, I voted to allocate $42 million, $140 million, $200 million and now $250 million to companies in the portfolio. The numbers ballooned by 500% in just a few months. I wonder where all these figures come from, because they don't hold up.
What I can tell you, however, is that the only vote I may have cast, unknowingly, in favour of companies in which Cycle Capital had interests, was the vote on the COVID‑19 measures. At the time of the vote, my stakes in GreenMantra and MineSense were 0.04% and 0.03%, respectively. At that time, the maximum gain from these measures was $154.73 for GreenMantra and $90.63 for MineSense.
There's a big difference between $250 and $250 million, a gap almost as great as the moral and reputational damage caused by these unverified allegations.
I am now available to answer your questions.
