Government Operations committee  I've said this over and over again; I said that someone who could work through the government maze, yes; open the Prime Minister's Office, no. I said that. It was my fault.

Government Operations committee  I've said I would provide this committee with every single document I have from the day I met him until today: every single document, every single piece of correspondence—

Government Operations committee  Again, I go back to the contract that was signed, which says exactly what they were going to do. I keep saying that they were going to deal with any company that we brought them and take it to the right government body to assess whether or not they were viable--by the government.

Government Operations committee  Sir, I can give you some background on myself. My father founded a company called Xantrex Technology. It's one of the largest underwritings ever done in Canada by RBC. The symbol on the Toronto Exchange was XTX. I grew up, obviously, around my father. He taught me a lot of stuff with regard to government funding, but he never needed an intermediary.

Government Operations committee  I was excited, and it was not what I should have said, obviously.

Government Operations committee  Sure. There was no correspondence between me and the government. It's all correspondence between GPG and the government. I believe it was Patrick Glémaud. Mr. Glémaud contacted whoever it was but just sent us back the actual federal government requests for information. There were several questions in regard to Green Rite that were sent to Patrick, that were sent to our office and copied to Jim Wright.

Government Operations committee  It was six, and the first time—yes, seven; that's correct.

Government Operations committee  I was introduced by my cousin. His name is Aleem Lakhani. He's a Harvard graduate who works for a company called AmTrust Financial, and he has recently also made an article available to Mr. Donovan, so you know, our relationship is also over as a result of this.

Government Operations committee  Yes. I did. He and Patrick said that they could, again, take any company that we gave them that had potential, as far as viability to them first, so you'd qualify that first level of degree of looking at a deal and making sure that they liked it. Then they would take it to the necessary government body that potentially could fund it; maybe there was a program that was specifically designed for that type of project.

Government Operations committee  They were going to deal with everything, right? That's why we went to Green Power.

Government Operations committee  We wanted an intermediary to be able to go and deal with government.

Government Operations committee  If they could do that, that would be something they would do on their own, because again, as I said, there's no underhandedness or undue influence here. This was based on the fact that they understood government. They understood who to take the projects to, not on the basis of doing anything under the table or outside the law or outside any sort of structured basis.

Government Operations committee  Sure, sure, I knew that he was a former caucus member or the head of the caucus. I knew that he had a 12-year career as an MP, but I wasn't expecting him to open doors to specific government members or anything else. I wanted an intermediary who understood the maze of government--to figure out how to get an application into the right place and get it assessed.

Government Operations committee  I'll give you an example. Recently I lost my wallet, so I had to go and get my citizenship card replaced. To me, getting on the government site to get my citizenship card was a government maze. That's my example. You can get so frustrated with the amount of requirements, the number of things that you need or you don't need, and talking to people on the phone.

Government Operations committee  I did not know anything about that letter.