The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - No Logs, Just Lies： The ArriveCan Audit

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. Even

00:00:09.000 throughout the summer, I'm your host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton

00:00:12.340 and Kawartha Lakes, with new content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30pm Eastern Time. Don't

00:00:16.940 forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share this program. You can tell your friends to download it

00:00:21.760 on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. You name it, it is out there. On

00:00:26.620 today's show, we are talking about GC strategies. Of course, the Auditor General's report might even

00:00:32.960 get into the Liberals' plan to reduce the sales of fossil-fueled vehicles. Talk about this and much,

00:00:39.960 much more. We have Stephanie Cusey, Member of Parliament for Calgary Mindepore. Thanks for

00:00:43.840 coming on the show. Also, the Treasury Board critic. That's right. Thank you very much for having me,

00:00:48.240 Jamie. It's always a pleasure to be here on The Blueprint with you and Conservatives across Canada.

00:00:53.580 Yeah. Well, sadly, your file is kind of busy because, of course, we have an Auditor General's

00:01:01.660 report. And of course, before the past election, we were digging into GC Strategies, a company owned

00:01:07.740 by a couple of guys in their basement with a PO box that seemed to get a lot of money, a lot of

00:01:13.460 contracts from different departments. And of course, they're infamous for the RavCan app that cost $54

00:01:22.940 million, but could really be done for a couple hundred thousand. That's right. Yeah, this is a

00:01:28.700 two-person company that we have determined really did no IT work. They received $64 million across 31

00:01:37.580 different departments. And the Auditor General's report was just scathing. You saw in the clip, she said that

00:01:47.100 she's not going to make any more recommendations, because all that the Liberals really need do are follow

00:01:53.420 and enforce the rules. You think that would be an easy thing to do, Jamie, is follow and enforce the rules. But

00:01:59.100 apparently, it was just too difficult for the series of ministers that we've had over the past 10 years of

00:02:06.780 this Liberal government to follow and enforce these rules with GC Strategies. And we saw all types of

00:02:12.860 different rules being broken. We saw that in a lot of the cases when the contracts were evaluated, those who

00:02:19.740 were completing the work didn't have the necessary skills or qualifications to complete the work, which is 0.61

00:02:26.220 ridiculous. If you think about applying for a job, the first thing you do is give your resume to be

00:02:31.820 evaluated. We would never let a tradesperson in Canada do work for which they're not certified. This

00:02:37.900 is a fundamental thing if you go and see your doctor, go and see your dentist. You want to know that they

00:02:43.260 are able to do what you want to see them to do. Another thing we found was that timesheets were not

00:02:50.860 documented at all or poorly documented. How can we assume anything other than these individuals were

00:02:58.140 stealing from the Canadian people and being dishonest about the amount of work that they did

00:03:04.060 or the rate charge, these types of things. So there were just discrepancies all across the Auditor

00:03:10.860 General's report and what she found. And you heard her, she didn't make any recommendations

00:03:16.540 because she has come to the same conclusions before. It's ridiculous. But the Liberals haven't 0.99

00:03:22.140 learned. And as you know, that's why we put forward our motion the other day, which passed and we can

00:03:28.380 get into that as well. Absolutely. So what you're trying to tell me is that Trudeau Liberals, which was

00:03:35.500 known for breaking ethics rules and other rules set aside for ministers and parliamentarians,

00:03:41.740 it's kind of like the carny Liberals are doing the same thing. It's like they're the same

00:03:46.220 same group of people, isn't it? It's exactly like that. Despite being the new government. That's right.

00:03:51.660 No, it's not new at all. And you can see that this government is really trying to differentiate

00:03:58.140 themselves, but they are fundamentally doing the same thing. So for example, they put a seven-year ban on

00:04:05.020 GC strategies. Why not indefinite? Why not for life? That's what our motion included,

00:04:10.220 was a ban for life. They just said, nope, seven years, that's good enough as well.

00:04:16.060 But it impacted the company, not necessarily the individuals or anyone connected. So a company

00:04:21.580 could just change their business name or number and you could get right back into the game.

00:04:26.860 You are absolutely correct about that. It does not stop them from doing that at all. And then the

00:04:34.380 second thing that this Liberal government hasn't done into this new government is actually two

00:04:40.220 things. One is lay off the contractors, the high price consultants, excuse me. The previous

00:04:48.220 Treasury Board Minister, Anita Annan, said that she was going to get $7 billion in savings with

00:04:54.940 these, with consultants. And instead we've seen consultant use go up in this government. So that

00:05:01.740 hasn't changed. And the other thing that Anita Annan promised that she was going to do, which I hope her

00:05:07.900 successor does, is get the money back. Because we haven't seen a single cent back, Jamie, from GC

00:05:14.220 strategies. And as you know, that's why we presented this motion in the House of Commons last week to put a

00:05:20.940 lifetime ban on GC strategies. And it's all of its entities, it's different

00:05:29.740 successors that we could see there. And as well, that we asked for them to get the money back within

00:05:35.740 a hundred days. Wouldn't that be nice? Wouldn't that be nice? Millions of dollars back. Well, let's queue up

00:05:40.060 cut one. We have the Auditor General doing a press conference about her latest report in which, as you

00:05:45.660 mentioned, little to no recommendations because you just have to follow the rules that were laid out

00:05:51.100 before. Play cut one. Government contracts awarded to GC Strategies Incorporated, an Ottawa-based

00:05:56.860 information technology staffing company. From April 2015 to March 2024, 31 federal organizations issued 106

00:06:06.860 contracts to GC Strategies. In this audit, we found that federal organizations frequently disregarded

00:06:14.700 government procurement rules that promote fairness, transparency, and value for Canadians. The

00:06:21.500 findings in this audit echo those of previous audits, where we found deficiencies in how public

00:06:27.660 servants applied federal procurement rules. There are no recommendations in this report, because I

00:06:34.860 believe the government does not need more procurement rules. Rather, federal organizations need to make sure

00:06:41.900 that the rules that exist are understood and followed. Only in government can you award these contracts

00:06:50.220 with little to no recording or accountability measures in place and safety guardrails to protect

00:06:57.660 a company's money, but only in government where you can hand out these contracts and not expect any work

00:07:01.900 to be done. You're absolutely correct. And to add salt to the wound, Jamie, they found that in an amazing amount of the

00:07:13.020 contracts that they did not check for market value of the work that was completed. That's another significant finding.

00:07:21.180 You know, Canadians across the country are price comparing every time they go. They go to buy tomatoes, grapes, apples,

00:07:29.660 anything. They are comparing prices. This government didn't do the same with millions of dollars. They just

00:07:35.900 simply handed out the contracts, gave the contract to GC Strategies. So that was another major finding. But like you

00:07:43.900 said, we are seeing just a continuation from the last government into this government, a disregard for

00:07:51.340 money, a disregard for value, being untrustworthy when it comes to completing work or to documenting

00:08:00.140 that work. This has to change. But as the Auditor General stated in that clip, these Liberals have not

00:08:06.060 learned their lesson. So let's hope in this new government, we see an administration, because Mark Carney said that

00:08:13.100 they would be guided by a new fiscal discipline. He said that in the speech from the throne. He said

00:08:18.540 that in addressing his caucus. So let's hope he puts his money where his mouth is and starts to do that,

00:08:24.460 Jamie. So we have the government continuing to spend on consultants. What, last year it was something

00:08:30.060 like $24, $22 billion. That's right, $23 billion. In a government that is bigger and more bloated than

00:08:37.420 ever, somehow we found a way to pay $20 billion in consultancy contracts. Unbelievable. And not only that, they

00:08:46.460 continue to go up. There's actually more money in the budget estimated to spend on consultants. So if you're

00:08:54.620 spending this money on consultants, a ridiculous amount, and we continue to blow by these so-called fiscal

00:09:01.180 guardrails, why are we still having a public service bigger than ever? That's a very good question.

00:09:10.540 And I imagine as well, it's incredibly demoralizing to these public servants who take these jobs in an 0.98

00:09:17.580 effort to serve Canada and then are told, oh, sorry, your work isn't good enough, or we need to

00:09:24.620 bring in someone from the outside. That must be incredibly frustrating and demoralizing

00:09:30.700 as a public servant. But again, as I said, the prime minister said he really wants to start a new

00:09:37.900 tone of fiscal responsibility with this government. And yet he presented main estimates of half a

00:09:44.460 trillion dollars. That is crazy. He is continuing the Trudeau legacy of overspending. This was shortly

00:09:52.140 followed thereafter by supplementary estimates in the billions as well. He really needs to

00:09:59.660 turn things around from every single perspective, whether it is from expenditures, value for money,

00:10:06.460 good utilization of money. These are all the things that were reflected in the Auditor General's

00:10:12.140 reports. And the other insulting thing, Jamie, with all of this is that these ministers who oversaw

00:10:20.220 these atrocities have been promoted in the Carney government. So again, if Carney was truly following

00:10:26.380 a new fiscal discipline, a new standard with this government, then wouldn't he have ministers who

00:10:36.060 enforce these standards that would include good expenditure of public funds? Canadians, when they

00:10:41.900 give their money to the government, it is with the trust that the government will be good stewards of

00:10:47.900 the money that they have worked so hard to earn. And in the main estimates, Carney is failing to do this.

00:10:56.060 Even, Jamie, we have the new president of the Treasury Board, Mr. Ali, present in the Committee of the

00:11:04.220 Whole last week. And his knowledge base was embarrassing for him. He couldn't say the amount of the main

00:11:12.060 estimates. He couldn't say the amount that we were voting on within the House on the main estimates. I mean,

00:11:19.020 these are simple questions that a prime minister who wants to inspire confidence in the Canadian people,

00:11:27.820 they would be able to have this base type of knowledge and have a base level of competence. And yet, it seemed within

00:11:33.420 this Committee of the Whole, he was not capable of demonstrating this type of basic information that

00:11:41.980 a president of the Treasury Board, who's been on the job now for close to a month, would have. So,

00:11:47.500 Prime Minister Carney has a lot of work to do in showing Canadians that he is a good steward of their

00:11:53.580 money, and as well that he has appointed ministers who are capable of managing the money of Canadians, spending

00:12:00.780 it well, spending it prudently, staying within the rules even. He's got a long way to go with that

00:12:06.300 and his cabinet to demonstrate that, Jamie. Well, and the Minister for Treasury Board has been elected

00:12:11.100 since what, 2015 or something? That's right. So, it's not his first go around. And for those listening

00:12:15.980 and watching at home, the estimate process is really the mechanism to get the money flowing.

00:12:20.220 Exactly. The budget's more the blueprint, it's the estimates that release the funds. And that's,

00:12:25.580 I think, key in where you see some of these numbers changing and actually increasing it.

00:12:29.740 And I hate to say it, based on the numbers that I've seen, the way Mark Carney wants to spend,

00:12:35.340 he almost makes Justin Trudeau look like a fiscal hawk. Like, it pains me to say that,

00:12:40.380 because Trudeau was so awful. But Carney's plans to grow the economy aren't going to happen. He can

00:12:47.100 say it all he wants. He's got pieces of legislation, historic pieces that the Liberals have put in over

00:12:52.300 the last 10 years and barriers to competition and attracting capital and all that. So, he can say they

00:12:58.140 want to attract business and grow the economy. But when you have to beg government for these

00:13:02.620 permissions and the ability to do certain projects through their new approval process that they hope

00:13:08.380 to bring in, you only get projects that government approve of that have a political ends to it. You

00:13:14.300 don't actually get the best innovation possible. That's right. And I really think that's what Bill C-5 is

00:13:21.340 going to have to overcome. It's actually getting things done, building things. I mean, we talk about,

00:13:27.980 or I should say, the Minister of Natural Resources talks about a two-year window for approvals,

00:13:34.700 but two years is a long time even before you get shovels in the ground compared to Pierre Polyev's

00:13:39.900 green light policy that he put forward during the election. And we continue to put forward the four

00:13:46.780 things that would absolutely provide for way faster productivity, almost immediately eliminating C-48,

00:13:55.660 eliminating C-69, getting rid of the caps and eliminating the industrial carbon tax. Mark

00:14:02.620 Carney said during the election, people don't use a lot of steel. That's absolutely ridiculous. But I 0.97

00:14:09.340 mean, this is the type of thinking, and this is the type of, it almost feels like being stubborn to me,

00:14:15.900 that he's not willing to just change these things out of pride because these were conservative ideas,

00:14:24.620 although they certainly took a lot during the election. But that certainly leads also right

00:14:30.140 into our opposition day motion that we have here at the end of the session on electric vehicles.

00:14:37.260 Yeah. And really being realistic about their creation, their utility, especially given the

00:14:47.340 unique climate conditions and work environments that we have here in Canada. But it is a realistic

00:14:55.980 assessment that will be needed for productivity as well, because that's definitely the other side of

00:15:01.340 fiscal responsibility. You can manage the money well, but then you have to ensure that the population,

00:15:07.820 has access to good markets, good jobs to create that wealth that is required to spend.

00:15:14.780 Absolutely. Well, that leads me into the next topic. We have a few graphics there,

00:15:17.660 we can put them in now or later. So the Government of Canada is moving forward their idea to cap the

00:15:24.300 number of fossil fuel powered vehicles, or gas powered vehicles, however you want to say it,

00:15:29.820 in Canada by 2030 or 2035, something like that, which causes a problem on its own. Other than the market

00:15:39.500 choosing what is the best option, they're pretty much taking that off the table. But they're going to

00:15:45.660 cause a situation where you can see this coming down the road, as the deadline for this EV mandate comes,

00:15:54.780 you will have probably a surge of sales for gas powered vehicles, and then the resale market on

00:16:01.260 the other side causes a bit of problems. So I think, unless the market dictates terms that best product,

00:16:08.380 price, service, etc., you're really setting this up to fail, but you're also phasing out a lot of

00:16:13.340 people out of the marketplace that can afford a certain vehicle. You're spiking the cost of a

00:16:22.220 traditional gas powered vehicle, and then you're spiking it on the resale or the parts end as well,

00:16:27.980 because you'll be limiting the amount of supply. Right. I see this situation just rife with problems

00:16:36.940 for the Liberal government. In addition to that, I worry about the markets in both the US,

00:16:44.620 I say the production in both the US and Mexico, the type of impact that that's going to have on

00:16:49.500 the Canadian market. I'm sure our workers are very worried about those impacts. And then the other thing

00:16:55.180 I worry about, in addition to the consumer choice, the effectiveness of these vehicles in the Canadian

00:17:02.540 climate is the critical minerals, like the supply chain. Again, and that ties back to the productivity

00:17:11.980 and this two-year approval window, when once again, the Trudeau government was so opposed to any type of

00:17:20.380 resource development for our nation. I almost see it like a chicken and egg kind of problem when you

00:17:27.100 think of it in that way. So I really think that this government has to seriously consider productivity

00:17:36.460 from both an ideological perspective and also a practical perspective, because Canadians elected

00:17:44.780 them with the understanding that they were a mature professional government, comparative to what we've

00:17:53.180 seen in the last 10 years. And so far we've seen, based upon the expenditure, based upon the same

00:17:59.740 players, based upon the outcomes that we've seen to this point, that they are not. And so it looks like

00:18:08.220 C5 is going to pass here in the next 48 hours as we finish up our time here on the Hill. And so the clock

00:18:17.180 starts ticking for this Liberal government and for Mark Carney that they will deliver what they promise

00:18:23.020 Canadians. And there is nothing worse than someone, especially a politician, especially a Prime

00:18:28.860 Minister who can't keep their promises, who say elbows up, but then production is down, national

00:18:35.740 revenue is down. They better deliver and this EV piece is a critical part of it. I have nothing against

00:18:42.620 EVs. I drive a hybrid myself, but it was the free choice of the free market that made the best option for me

00:18:48.940 possible. And I think that's, that's what we're pushing for. We're not pushing for the government to

00:18:53.580 shove things down people's throat and said, you're going to drive this because the government can't,

00:18:58.220 doesn't have a crystal ball. They don't know what, what the options are for people and they can't tell

00:19:03.020 people what their best option are because everybody's situation is different. And you know what,

00:19:08.380 I have nothing against public transit, use it from time to time myself. You're in Calgary, you have a great

00:19:12.700 transit system, right? But at the same time, having a vehicle is, is basically ultimate freedom. You can

00:19:19.340 go where you want, when you want, with whom you want, it doesn't matter, right? When you're, when

00:19:23.420 you're, when you're pushed out of the vehicle market because of government mandates, pushing a certain

00:19:28.140 narrative, forcing you, maybe you're on the lower end and that means you're, you're gas-fired vehicles

00:19:33.500 no more, you're taking the bus now. Then you're going on the government's time and the government's

00:19:37.820 route. You know, there, there's that other just, just ideological view of it too, right? Like,

00:19:44.300 if public transit's good for you, take public transit. If electric vehicle is good for you,

00:19:48.860 take electric vehicle. If fossil fuel is good for you, buy that, right? Like, you should have a range

00:19:54.060 of options, not limited by government's view of the world. Right, and I think that goes back to Pierre

00:20:01.820 Poliev's discussion and promise of the Canadian dream during the election. Once again, he talked

00:20:09.420 about owning a home in a safe neighborhood, having a good job. But I think many Canadians would agree,

00:20:15.580 historically, that also means having a motor vehicle. Many, some Canadians do not. My sister lives in

00:20:21.340 downtown Toronto. They have a vehicle that very frequently they travel by, she loves riding her

00:20:27.900 bike into work, she likes walking. But historically, we do tie having a vehicle into part of the Canadian

00:20:35.820 dream. And I, I think that definitely applies to the majority of my constituents in Calgary,

00:20:41.740 Midnipour, where we are very much a suburban community and need a vehicle to go to hockey,

00:20:48.220 take the kids to hockey practice, need a vehicle to go to, to work downtown. So yeah, I agree with what

00:20:56.620 you're saying. Well, I'm glad you do, because we're pretty much out of time. We have to get

00:21:00.220 out of here, but I always appreciate you giving up your time and your views and love having this

00:21:04.140 conversation. As you know, you're a good friend of the show, but the guests get the last word.

00:21:08.300 The floor is yours. Well, Jamie, thank you so much for continuing to do the Blueprint. I think that it is

00:21:14.540 just excellent content and conversations for not only Conservatives, but Canadians across the country

00:21:21.660 that are looking to have insight as to our perspectives and our views. And I'm just grateful

00:21:27.980 to be here with you. Thank you. Well, thank you, Stephanie. Stephanie Cusey, Member of Parliament for

00:21:31.660 Calgary, Midnipour, also the critic for the Treasury Board. You heard her folks. Please like, comment,

00:21:36.620 subscribe and share this program. It's a great conversation. We want to hear, we want to ensure

00:21:41.340 more people get to hear it. So tell your friends to download it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes,

00:21:45.580 Google Play, and Spotify. You name it, it is out there. New content for you every single Tuesday,

00:21:50.860 even throughout the summer, 1.30 p.m. Eastern time. Until next week, remember,

00:21:54.620 low taxes, less government, more freedom. That's the Blueprint.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - July 09, 2025

No Logs, Just Lies： The ArriveCan Audit

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript