Whistleblower Trudeau's $1 Billion Green Slush Fund
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
140.24132
Summary
In the fall of 2018, a comprehensive 345-page presentation was submitted to the Privy Council Office at the request of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. This package contained documents that outlined gross mismanagement across every aspect of SDTC's operations and governance. It highlighted noncompliance with the SDTC Act and contribution agreement across all of the organization's funding streams, and serious breaches of the conflict of interest policies by the executives and board. The package also included evidence of the toxic workplace culture that was created by CEO Leah Lawrence and her friend and still current VP Zoe Kolbach, who've been allowed to continue abusing and harassing employees.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
The SDTC board, executives, and senior management must be held accountable for their gross mismanagement of taxpayer money
00:00:07.040
and the gross misconduct that's been perpetrated by the toxic senior management team that has victimized countless employees.
00:00:15.760
And the federal government must also be held accountable for its embarrassing lack of oversight
00:00:21.180
that's allowed these problems to persist and its egregious cover-up of the truth that occurred this fall.
00:00:27.520
At the beginning of this year, a comprehensive 345-page presentation was created and submitted to the Privy Council Office
00:00:36.260
at the request of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, who we originally went to.
00:00:41.800
This package contained documents that outlined gross mismanagement across every aspect of SDTC's operations and governance.
00:00:49.240
It highlighted noncompliance with the SDTC Act and contribution agreement across all of the organization's funding streams
00:00:56.020
and serious breaches of the conflict of interest policies by the executives and board.
00:01:01.460
The package also included evidence of the toxic workplace culture that was created by CEO Leah Lawrence
00:01:08.700
and her friend and still current VP Zoe Kolbach, who've been allowed to continue abusing and harassing employees
00:01:16.020
by a passive senior management team and board that protects and hides the abuse.
00:01:20.400
All of this information underwent review by PCO and was then forwarded to ISED,
00:01:26.120
who subsequently engaged RCGT to conduct an independent fact-finding exercise to validate this information.
00:01:35.620
The seed fund, ecosystem fund, and scale-up fund were all found to be ineligible
00:01:40.720
due to multiple violations of the contribution agreement, significant deviations from the due diligence process,
00:01:47.320
and conflict of interest breaches by board members and executives.
00:01:51.920
This finding encompasses nearly 200 companies that all received over $80 million,
00:01:58.480
all of which was improperly funded using taxpayer money.
00:02:02.540
The two COVID payments in 2020 and 2021 were also given to the full portfolio of companies
00:02:09.980
and totaled almost $40 million and were also deemed to be ineligible
00:02:14.080
as the use of these funds was not effectively tracked.
00:02:17.600
And several board members in that instance also violated conflict of interest
00:02:21.940
by approving almost $4 million to themselves to over a dozen companies
00:02:27.220
where they all hold significant ownership or executive positions.
00:02:30.900
The report also revealed that SDTC lacked HR processes or policies
00:02:36.120
and issues were never even reported to the board.
00:02:39.860
And conveniently, the RCGT investigators couldn't even find a single record
00:02:44.920
of any complaint ever being made in the history of the organization.
00:02:49.700
This is a staggering level of incompetence, woeful ignorance, and corruption
00:02:55.740
that has resulted in SDTC improperly distributing almost $150 million in taxpayer dollars
00:03:03.120
just in the past few years and abusing dozens of people
00:03:14.800
The organization also deserved a new board, executive, and senior management team,
00:03:21.000
Not a single one of the individuals responsible for these issues has faced a single consequence.
00:03:28.060
No executive or board member was terminated or even given the slightest handcuffs.
00:03:35.240
And every single person that was directly implicated even had their names redacted
00:03:43.820
Even more shocking is the fact that despite these findings, ISAD continues to allow these individuals
00:03:51.060
to manage taxpayer dollars and allows them to continue perpetuating the abuse against employees
00:03:57.440
who've been desperately seeking protection from their own government for over a year.
00:04:06.700
SDTC's board and executive continues to insist that the issues are just minor inconsistencies
00:04:13.420
while ISAD and the Minister continue to claim that no findings warrant serious action.
00:04:19.820
These are false narratives and I'm here to provide documented proof of all of the lies
00:04:24.660
that continue to be perpetuated by both SDTC and ISAD.
00:04:28.480
I believe that my testimony can provide an in-depth overview of the key issues at SDTC
00:04:34.940
because I worked on the financial due diligence and compliance of projects at SDTC
00:04:39.600
for the key two-year period that coincides with the most serious findings in the RCGT report.
00:04:47.080
I'm also intimately aware of exactly how ISAD understood the issues
00:04:52.280
and the clear direction that the total bureaucracy had laid out.
00:04:56.600
The Minister and PCO have been aware of this file for more than they are telling to the public
00:05:04.620
and there are even documented evidence that they even engaged with everyone at ISAD
00:05:13.300
to make sure there were edits to the briefings before they were officially sent to them.
00:05:18.860
All of this is backed up by documents, transcripts and recordings,
00:05:23.140
some of which we've already submitted to this committee.