QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety
Contract Awarded to Chinese Company
December 8, 2022
Senator Gold, yesterday the Prime Minister was quick to blame officials for the security equipment contract awarded to a company with ties to a Chinese company.
Yesterday evening, to pass the time, I took to reading the book Droit constitutionnel by Brun, Brouillet and Tremblay, which I am sure you are familiar with, and I happened upon the part on ministerial responsibility. It explains that a minister must answer not only for his own actions, but also those of his officials. He could even be forced to step down in a case of serious mismanagement.
Don’t you think that this is a case of mismanagement, where a public safety minister is jeopardizing national security by literally letting the fox into the henhouse?
Thank you for the question, but I disagree.
Can you tell us more about the measures the government intends to take to make sure that the fox does not eat all the hens and that we do not end up compromising our national security, not only because of the contract that was awarded but also because of other contracts awarded in the past, including some by the Department of National Defence? When the Chinese acquired this company’s contracts, they gained access to all kinds of information about prior contracts.
Thank you for the question. Measures that have already been taken include suspending the contract. The Prime Minister announced that the government will carry out a more comprehensive inquiry into infrastructure security and integrity as a whole. Minister Champagne also made similar announcements.
As I said, the government is taking this very seriously and will do whatever it takes to safeguard the integrity of our infrastructure and our information and to protect Canadians’ security.
