Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics

Comité permanent de l'accès à l'information, de la protection des renseignements personnels et de l'éthique

For immediate release

Ottawa, 10 June 2021 – Today, Chris Warkentin, MP and Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, tabled in the House of Commons a report entitled Questions of Conflict of Interest and Lobbying in Relation to Pandemic Spending.

The Committee studied questions of conflict of interest and lobbying in relation to pandemic spending, with a focus on three specific cases: the administration of the Canada Student Service Grant and WE Charity; the communications of former reporting public office holder David MacNaughton with government officials; and the federal government’s award of a ventilator contract to FTI Professional Grade Inc., an organization affiliated with Baylis Medical Company Inc. The Committee’s report makes 23 recommendations to the federal government that pertain primarily to its conflict of interest, lobbying and due diligence processes.

One key recommendation in the report is to require, prior to all cabinet decisions on awarding a contract or contribution agreement, a determination as to whether a conflict of interest screen should be put in place for any minister. Among other recommendations, the Committee asks the Government of Canada to:

• establish a mandatory competitive process to select recipients for contribution agreements valued above a predetermined threshold;
• remove the significant-part-of-duties threshold from the Lobbying Act for in-house lobbyists;
• provide the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner with more tools to sanction public office holders who contravene the Conflict of Interest Act; and
• insist that projects that involve hiring people across Canada are properly vetted regarding their obligation to ensure full participation in Quebec and in francophone communities outside of Quebec.

“This report is the culmination of efforts by our committee to identify the facts about how pandemic spending decisions were made by the Government of Canada. The Committee’s investigation faced many obstacles including the prorogation of Parliament and the refusal of key witnesses to testify. I would like to thank the many witnesses who willingly provided evidence for this important investigation and hope our findings assist other Parliamentarians who will continue to investigate questions that remain unanswered.” said Chris Warkentin, Chair of the Committee.

“As Liberal Vice-Chair, I am disappointed that opposition committee members preferred to conduct a politically motivated witch-hunt rather than a serious study of the integrity of conflict of interest and lobbying safeguards in emergency federal spending. Our concerns and recommendations are outlined in our Dissenting Report.” said Brenda Shanahan, Vice-Chair of the Committee.

“We all agree that the pandemic meant exceptional measures were needed to help the entire population. The Bloc Québécois worked cooperatively right from the start to quickly put effective programs in place. The government was granted exceptional powers in a very specific context. It is clear that the government has abused these powers. Many examples are outlined here in this study. An emergency should never be an excuse for ignoring ethics and good governance. On the contrary, given the sheer scale of the spending, the government should have been above reproach. The recommendations in this report are critical and must be implemented to prevent a similar situation from happening again. More importantly, they are needed for the government to regain the public’s trust.” said Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Vice-Chair of the Committee.

“The committee has spent months looking into the WE scandal and revealed a disturbing picture of insider access and disregard of basic rules. The money to help students in the pandemic was sent off the rails by a failure to put the interests of the public ahead of the interests of powerful friends of the government. This report documents how we can make improvements to prevent these scandals in the future.” said Charlie Angus, Member of the Committee.

The Committee held 17 meetings as part of this study and heard from 32 witnesses, including representatives of WECharity, Baylis Medical Company Inc. and FTI Professional Grade Inc; ministers and federal officials; and experts in the fields of conflict of interest and lobbying. The witness testimony heard by the Committee is available on the Parliament of Canada’s website.

The Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics has 11 members. It is chaired by Chris Warkentin (Grande Prairie—Mackenzie), with vice-chairs Brenda Shanahan (Châteauguay—Lacolle) and Marie-Hélène Gaudreau (Laurentides—Labelle). The other members are Charlie Angus (Timmins—James Bay), Michael Barrett (Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes), Colin Carrie (Oshawa), Han Dong (Don Valley North), Greg Fergus (Hull—Aylmer), Jacques Gourde (Lévis—Lotbinière), Patricia Lattanzio (Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel), and Francesco Sorbara (Vaughan—Woodbridge).