Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, the value of the contract was slightly over $250,000.

Government Operations committee  The scope was pretty broad. It was giving us verbal advice on some security aspects, but it was also looking at how we approach and how we review all security equipment purchases moving forward. It was not about this standing offer in particular—

Government Operations committee  It—

Government Operations committee  She would, for this one piece of equipment, absolutely. As the assistant deputy minister, I—

Government Operations committee  As the assistant deputy minister—

Government Operations committee  It was a policy matter. It was not about the technical use of equipment in a particular deployment. The CSE is absolutely invaluable for us in that aspect, and they have been in the past in other aspects of our deployments. On this one in particular, and on other security equipm

Government Operations committee  I don't know exactly when my minister was informed, but it would be on or around the days just after the award of the standing offer. I think he was publicly questioned about it at the time and made pretty quick statements that he was instructing the department to conduct a revie

Government Operations committee  I can speak on behalf of Global Affairs. Yes, very, very quickly I was instructed to conduct the review, as discussed earlier.

Government Operations committee  If I could, Mr. Chair, I'll respond on behalf of Global Affairs on this one. Global Affairs does have a procurement team, so we have some insight into procurement here, although this was done by PSPC on our behalf. Employees often don't feel empowered to challenge policy—I'm sa

Government Operations committee  It's a final draft right now. We're moving to make it final by the end of the week or early next week, and we can share it with the committee at that time. I'll be happy to do so. As for what we're doing moving forward, we're already in conversations with public servants in proc

Government Operations committee  Correct, and they're very important partners for us.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, that's probably more of a question for Global Affairs Canada. It was my choice to go to Deloitte for this review. My view—and I think you would understand this—is that I wanted this review done outside of my department by people who weren't involved in the original dec

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. I can't obviously—and my position doesn't make me an authority to—answer all aspects of Canada-China relations. I can speak to this acquisition and the fact that it's very, very important for us to have reliable, trusted companies providi

Government Operations committee  Thank you again for the question. I think the question gets to the heart of the Deloitte report, which is not anti-Nuctech or anti-China. It is pro-security, and it forced us to re-examine our paradigm. You may not like the answer, but that is the way forward for us. It's to mak

Government Operations committee  We did request and we have an NSE for all of the equipment in our security and high-security zones in our missions around the world. This is equipment that, as I said, was in the public access zone and was assessed probably in a more naive era of looking at this type of equipment