Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. It concerns the matter of a sole-source contract awarded by the Senate Corporate Security Directorate to private security company Arlington Group Inc. as reported earlier this week by the Globe and Mail. Senator Harder, could you please tell us when you learned of this particular contract?

Let me say, first of all, thank you for the question. When the Globe and Mail article was brought to my attention.

Senator, what is your understanding of how this contract was approved? If you could help us, do you, as a representative of the government in this place, believe that the awarding of the contract followed the proper process?

Let me say that my colleague is a more senior senator than I in terms of service and experience. This matter is the responsibility of Senate administration and falls within the ambit of such and for which, as Government Representative, I have no responsibility.

I have no comment to make.

I thank the honourable senator for her question. As I have said, Senate administration falls outside of the direct responsibility of the Government Representative. There are appropriate responsibilities and accountabilities of Senate administration and indeed the oversight of senators. This is a matter that I understand has been and will continue to be discussed in that format.

Let me say while I’m on my feet that there are additional transparency and accountability improvements that could be made, including independent oversight.

First of all, senator, I would appreciate it if you acknowledged that the Senate was responsible for its own administration and bears no accountability, directly or indirectly, to the Prime Minister or his government. I hope that all senators would acknowledge that we have a collective responsibility through our administrative processes to deal with this matter.

Honourable senators, my question is also for the Leader of the Government in the Senate regarding the contract to a private security firm to hire supplementary security people. Can you tell me, Senator Harder, how many supplementary security people were hired, how long was the contract for and if it was renewable?

Again, as a former Chair of CIBA, I hope you would acknowledge that you would not wish for me — nor do I claim — to have any responsibility for the administration of the Senate. This is obviously a matter, as the honourable senator will know, for CIBA, and I wish he would ask his questions to the appropriate and accountable officers.

I would love to ask the appropriate person, but he hasn’t been here all week. What consultation was there with the Speaker of the Senate regarding this contract, and was the —

Sorry for interrupting you, Senator Tkachuk.

Senator Omidvar, points of order cannot be raised during Question Period. If you are on your feet to raise a point of order, Senator Tkachuk is asking a question.

What consultation was there with the Speaker of the Senate regarding this contract and was there consultation with the advisory committee on security in the Senate?

Senator, I would encourage you to at least have your supplementary have some relationship to the response to your first question, and that is, I have no idea because I am not responsible or accountable for that.

I would also encourage the honourable senator to withdraw the comments he made with respect to who is and who is not in the chamber. That is unparliamentary.

Honourable senators, my question is also for the Leader of the Government in the Senate.

I’m a little troubled, government leader, because there have been many years of effort put into this place by a number of people on both sides of the chamber in order to create a system that is accountable, transparent and agile enough to respond in a timely fashion to the media, to the press gallery and to the public. It has now been nine days since a major outlet, the Globe and Mail, asked a simple question with regard to a procurement contract that deserved to have been pre-approved, particularly if it was single-source for a significant amount of money, $70,000. I find it disturbing that we, as an institution, cannot give a clear answer to the people of Canada in a timely fashion. Nine days is unacceptable.

Even more unacceptable is that you said earlier in one of your answers that responsibility of administration here is collective. You are right. It is the responsibility of the government side, the opposition and all of this institution. When, on this side of the chamber, our representative on Internal Economy cannot answer simple questions from our caucus — why the contract was given and the pre-authorization for a single source was done by whom — and we still don’t have answers nine days later, it’s concerning. If you do not take responsibility and if Internal Economy, the majority of which is made up of Trudeau-appointed senators, does take responsibility, who takes responsibility in this place?

I thank the honourable senator for his question. I’m troubled by the accusations because they imply a role for the Government Representative that the Government Representative doesn’t have. In fact, the Government Representative has absolutely no representation on CIBA. It is entirely in the hands of the non-governmental representatives in the Senate, and this question is more appropriately addressed in the context of that forum.

I understand the political theatre that the questioners wish to engage in. I will not.

Government leader, we are talking about $70,000 of taxpayer funds that have been used here, and the government leader, the opposition leader, the Chair of Internal Economy and the Deputy Chairs of Internal Economy are not able to give parliamentarians an answer. And you can’t give a straight answer to the Globe and Mail. That’s what is unacceptable.

When a government leader who has been appointed by the sitting Primer Minister, who has a majority of senators on Internal Economy appointed by this Prime Minister, who has the Chair of Internal Economy appointed by this Prime Minister, gets up here and says we are putting on theatre, if you think $70,000 of taxpayer funds don’t require an answer, that is pathetic theatre on the part of this government.

No question.