Government Operations committee  No. That's not necessarily the case. Following our appearance, we received a letter advising us that there would be an investigation. We knew nothing, at that time, about the preliminary statement of facts and what CBSA had actually done. We didn't see that document before it was provided to you.

Government Operations committee  That's a good question. In order for CBSA to send it to the committee clerk, it first had to send it to us. A few days later, Mr. Brock asked to speak with us. He spoke with our lawyer. The investigation report had not yet been sent to the committee member. That was at the beginning.

Government Operations committee  Our lawyer dealt with the member of Parliament. It wasn't us. I think that some 300 pages were shared. That is as clearly as I can state it. That said, it wasn't the full document.

Government Operations committee  Sure, no problem. As an example—it was after my time—Service Canada asked for about $8 million for a call centre. I didn't validate those costs, but I would imagine they already have a call centre, since they're Service Canada. The IT operations team was asking for new resources, but they didn't take on the operation.

Government Operations committee  I'll try to respond in French, Mrs. Vignola. As I told you in November, the decision to award the contract to GC Strategies was made by my supervisor, Minh Doan. I read the letters written for the CBSA president. They indicated that it was Minh Doan and the then CBSA president, Mr.

Government Operations committee  I wasn't aware of that. There's a third factor, which is that the office of the chief information officer asked that his notes be sent to the current president, Ms. O'Gorman. I don't know why none of the three public servants were able to provide an answer when asked that question.

Government Operations committee  That's a good question. I felt that they were trying to scapegoat us and say that we were the ones who made that decision. As you saw during Minh Doan's testimony, when he came before the committee the first time, he said that he had no part in it, that it was his team's doing.

Government Operations committee  Of course. If there's another reason, I don't know what it is.

Government Operations committee  I'm not aware of anybody who's being investigated.

Government Operations committee  I'm not aware of any. Certainly, when I was at the CBSA, as I testified last time, I did not see any wrongdoing.

Government Operations committee  I wish I could explain it to this committee. We've asked the CBSA a number of times to provide the information from the Botler complaint. It's been completely withheld. I really wish we could understand. I know that Botler has gone on TV and online a lot and talked about it. I believe it was sent to Ms.

Government Operations committee  Sure. The document itself says that six people were invited to participate as witnesses. One of those people initially, as I understand it, rejected the offer to participate, which was her right, and certain steps were taken to pressure her into participating. I have some information around it, but not a lot.

Government Operations committee  That's a great question. I hope I can enlighten the committee a bit. We never had the authority to put in contracts. We never had the authority to put the TAs in place. We had what was called a “technical” authority. We could sign off on the scope of the task. I also want to mention that we are not the finance group, so we don't have responsibility for invoicing, reconciliation, the overall financial system or the system of record.

Government Operations committee  Thanks for the question. Minh Doan once said, at the early onset of the pandemic, that a rising tide floats all boats. At the onset of the pandemic, we were asked to digitize a form. The budget for that was about $50,000. When it went to building a mobile app and releasing it, the initial budget, from a prototype perspective, was about $400,000, as we've testified to previously and showed evidence of.

Government Operations committee  I'm telling you the truth. I had been invited, but—