QUESTION PERIOD — Public Services and Procurement
Procurement Process
December 3, 2024
Leader, the NDP-Liberals never proactively revealed their sole-sourced contracts with consultants at Accenture to run the Canada Emergency Business Account, or CEBA, loans program. Thanks to the Auditor General, we have learned it cost taxpayers $313 million.
We also learned from her report yesterday that $3.5 billion from this loan program went to ineligible recipients.
The NDP-Liberal government is now almost entirely reliant upon the consultants at Accenture to run the loans collection, which means Canadian taxpayers are on the hook for more money to Accenture until at least 2028. The Auditor General also said that your government still does not know how the government will enforce collection on defaulted loans.
Leader, how is this possible?
Thank you. The government always thanks and appreciates the work of the Auditor General.
During the depths of the pandemic, the Canada Emergency Business Account helped keep nearly 900,000 small businesses across the country afloat and their employees on the payroll. Export Development Canada, or EDC, the arm’s-length Crown corporation responsible for administering CEBA, independently awarded that contract.
All of that said, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance has raised her serious concerns with that contract directly with the President of EDC.
Yes, but I repeat that $3.5 billion from this program went to ineligible recipients. That is so much waste beyond our understanding.
In February, I asked you about the work being done at a subsidiary of Accenture in Brazil. It was concerning security clearances and whether that workforce has access to the financial information of Canadian small businesses. I have never received a response, leader. Given the severity of the Auditor General’s report, what are the answers to my questions regarding that?
Thank you for your question. I do not have the answers you requested; I am not able to provide them today.
But, again, I want to underline that what is important for Canadians to understand — and we understood this in Parliament — is that when the pandemic hit, it was understood that the money had to get out fast. It saved our economy, it saved families and almost 1 million businesses and their workers were saved through that program. That is a —
