GC Strategies partner Kristian Firth responds to questions as he sits in the House of Commons, Wednesday, April 17, 2024 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian WyldAdrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
The last time someone was called before the bar of the House of Commons to answer MPs’ inquiries, it was to demand that a man named R.C. Miller explain how his company got government contracts to supply lights, burners and bristle brushes for lighthouses. That was 1913.
On Wednesday, Kristian Firth, the managing partner of GCStrategies, one of the key contractors on the federal government’s ArriveCan app, was called to answer MPs’ queries. Inside the Commons, it felt like something from another century.
Mr. Firth was ushered to the entryway of the Commons by the Sergeant-at-Arms and left to stand at the gold bar at the far end of the House from Speaker Greg Fergus – who lectured him on Parliament’s privileges and scolded him for stonewalling and “prevaricating.”
“For all these reasons, on behalf of the House of Commons, I admonish you,” Mr. Fergus said.
GCStrategies’ business is providing software programmers, not burners or bristle brushes. But there were similarities with Mr. Miller’s Diamond Light and Heating, which, like Mr. Firth’s two-person company, did almost all of its business through government contracts. In both cases, MPs had a lot of questions about how they got those contracts.
Both had refused to answer. Both were summoned to be admonished, and to answer questions. In 1913, Mr. Miller stonewalled and spent a short time in jail.
In this century, things rolled out differently.
In the hours before Mr. Firth was brought into the Commons, news broke that the RCMP had raided his house outside Ottawa in Woodlawn on Tuesday.
Mr. Firth had appeared before Commons committees before, and it was the police that provided the new developments to fuel questions for MPs.
That forced Mr. Firth, in a kind of prisoner’s box where all questions must be answered, to confirm for the first time that he is being investigated by the RCMP. Mr. Firth said the search warrant was not related to ArriveCan itself but to another contract for the Canada Border Services Agency, and entailed six points, including fraudulent billing and résumé fraud.
Were it not for the police, the high-profile grilling would have been anticlimactic.
Mr. Firth had been cited by the Commons committee on government operations and estimates for failing to answer questions but had supplied all the answers before he appeared Wednesday, according to Bloc Québécois MP Julie Vignola, a member of the committee.
Even as the questioning began, it broke down in partisan recriminations over whether it should have been delayed.
Liberal House Leader Steven MacKinnon noted that Mr. Firth’s doctor has asked that it be postponed out of concern for his health, and only the Conservatives refused unanimous consent. “The leader of the opposition is giving us a demonstration of his character.” Mr. MacKinnon said.
That broke into a round of heckling, with Conservatives yelling “apologize!” and “you’re a disgrace,” and a Liberal MP calling Tories “heartless.”
The questions posed in the chamber didn’t lead to a lot of groundbreaking answers.
One key question that had been left unanswered in Mr. Firth’s previous testimony had stemmed from Auditor-General Karen Hogan’s finding that GCStrategies had helped write the terms of a tender that it later won.
Mr. Firth told the Commons that he only made suggestions on three of more than 200 contract requirements in conversations with a Diane Daly, a mid-level bureaucrat at the Canada Border Services Agency – and insisted that was common practice.
Mostly, MPs expressed outrage that his two-person company could take hefty commissions to hire programmers and other companies, after a procurement process that, with few records in the file, remains mysterious.
New Democrat Taylor Bachrach asked if he’d pay back the $2.5-million his company received for very little work. “We did as we were told,” Mr. Firth replied. The answer, in practice, was no.
Certainly, this rare ritual allowed for Parliament to send a cautionary message to witnesses that they expect to get answers. Mr. Firth apologized.
But while the police raid at his home revealed that the RCMP is investigating him, he insisted he will be exonerated.
“Aren’t you ashamed?” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, the last on the list of questioners.
“Mr. Speaker, do I have to answer that?” Mr. Firth asked. When Mr. Fergus told him he had to reply, his answer was brief: “I am not ashamed.” With that, he was dismissed.