Public Accounts Committee on Nov. 4th, 2024

[Ziyad Rahme]

That is correct, yes.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Prior to your appearance today, did you receive any briefings from any other member at SDTC, the NRC, the Minister of ISED, any of his deputies or assistant deputies or anyone in the Privy Council Office or the PMO?

[Ziyad Rahme]

Mr. Chair, I just want to clarify "briefings". What type of briefings?

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Briefings to prepare you for this hearing.

[Ziyad Rahme]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I would have certainly received briefings from my colleagues at SDTC. I would not have received any briefings whatsoever from—to go through the rest of your list—the NRC, anybody from the ministry, the deputy minister or any other ISED officials.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Were they strictly from SDTC only?

[Ziyad Rahme]

That is correct.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

In response to one of the questions put to you by my colleague Mr. Perkins in the first round, I saw you deliberately looking down and reading from what appears to be notes or a document. Is that accurate?

[Ziyad Rahme]

I have notes that I prepared for myself.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

We would like you to table those notes to this committee. Is that something that you would be prepared to do?

[Ziyad Rahme]

I will look into that for you.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Chair...?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Just one second, please. Hold on a second.

Mr. Brock, I'm going to let you continue, and I'm going to come back to you on that, please.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Were these notes prepared by you or any other member of SDTC?

[Ziyad Rahme]

Mr. Chair, these notes would have been prepared by my colleagues at SDTC, and I would have certainly had some input and contributed to them.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Who were the colleagues?

[Ziyad Rahme]

Mr. Chair, I'm sorry; what's the question?

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Who were the colleagues?

[Ziyad Rahme]

They were colleagues who had been monitoring the hearings that had been ongoing related to SDTC, so primarily staff in my—

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Sir, I would like the names and the official titles of all those individuals who've been monitoring these hearings and giving you advice and/or speaking notes in relation to your appearance today.

Is that something you'll comply with?

[Ziyad Rahme]

I will look into that, Mr. Chair.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

You indicated in your opening statement that part of your role as COO is to implement recommendations of the AG report. One of those recommendations of the AG report is to recover monies that were inappropriately taken from taxpayers. We have approximately $400 million identified as misused taxpayer funds that went to Liberal insiders.

A couple of months ago, we heard from one of the current acting directors, Cassie Doyle. I put to her several questions, as did other members, as to when taxpayers would receive their money back, and she refused to give us a straight answer.

It is something that I know the Auditor General is quite concerned about. When she testified back in June of this year, there was no clear indication from the government as to what the timetable was.

I'm asking you, sir, as the COO, what is the plan, what is the process and when can Canadians expect to receive their hard-earned tax dollars back?

[Ziyad Rahme]

Mr. Chair, of the 11 Auditor General recommendations, 10 have been implemented. There is one that is ongoing related to a very specific recommendation around reviewing the eligibility of all projects that were covered in the sample period that was covered by the Auditor General and her team.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Sir, I'm not asking about the process. I'm asking about when you or a member of your team will answer a question as to what the process is to repay the taxpayer.

When can we expect this?

[Ziyad Rahme]

Mr. Chair, just to continue, in that plan we tabled back in June, the eligibility review is targeted to be completed by the end of December.