Thank you, Chair.
Yesterday, I had a minor accident and injured my face and lips, which sometimes makes it so that my voice is raspy and less clear. I apologize for any inconvenience this creates for the committee. Please let me know if you wish me to repeat anything.
I appear before you today as a private citizen, having retired last January after 40 years of public service. I began working at ISED in 2016. My initial role was to co-chair a federal-provincial working group on clean technology. As the department's mandate on clean technology expanded, my role also expanded around strategic policy issues and outreach within Canada's clean technology community.
Beginning in 2017, I became the department's liaison with SDTC. I regularly attended board meetings between 2017 and early 2023. I played no formal role in board meetings, and the board minutes referred to me as being there by invitation.
Consistent with others who had held this role before me, I saw my role as assisting the board in understanding federal policy and program developments that may have relevance to its work. This engagement was also helpful to me in my broader work on clean tech, as SDTC was recognized as a long-time player in the sector.
A management action plan tied to ISED's 2018 evaluation of SDTC set out priorities that guided my work with SDTC. These included activities for improving performance data and reporting, policy development to move beyond early-stage technology pilots and promote commercialization and entrepreneurship, and finally, the development of a cross-government service to better integrate and coordinate the services that government provides to the clean-tech community.
SDTC's contribution agreement with ISED states that federal officials must not be seen as exercising control or influencing the decisions of that organization. I was therefore especially careful not to offer views or advice of any kind that could be seen to influence or bind its operations, policies or project decisions.
I did not attend, nor was I privy to, meetings of board subcommittees or other internal SDTC meetings where projects, conflicts of interest, HR issues or administrative matters were discussed. My vantage point on conflicts of interest was limited to what was contained in a package of documents provided to board members, typically a few days before each meeting, and what I witnessed in the personal conduct of board members at meetings. I did not have any special insight into the real or perceived conflicts of board members. I knew that it was their responsibility individually to address them if they existed.
What I saw in board meetings was a process entirely consistent with many boards, where members routinely note potential conflicts of interest and recuse themselves. No issues or concerns about board member conflicts were ever raised with me by SDTC staff or other members of the board.
With respect to the appointment of Ms. Verschuren as chair, I had no direct role in the PCO-led process. I played no role in interviews or screening activities. I offered no advice to anyone on potential candidates.
I was asked by the deputy minister's office of ISED on two occasions to send emails to the clean-tech stakeholder community to encourage them to nominate potential candidates for this position. I understand that this is a common procedure supporting central agency appointments processes—
