Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner (Calgary Nose Hill) found out through Order Paper Questions the Trudeau government spent $300 million on the new Canadian passport design and nearly another $5 million on Special Rapporteur David Johnston. .“In response to two Order Paper Question I filed on government spending, it was revealed that the Liberals had contracts worth nearly $5 million related to services for failed ‘Special Rapporteur’ David Johnston, and also spent $300 million for the newly designed Canadian passports,” said Rempel in a statement..“This type of waste has contributed to Canada’s inflationary crisis and needs to be stopped.”.For David Johnston's Special Rapporteur role, the Liberals spent nearly $5 million in sole-sourced contracts..The contracts awarded to Tory's LLP, including one with Navigator Ltd. and RKESTRA Communications Corporation, were collectively valued at nearly $5 million..“It’s worth noting that these contracts were sole-sourced, which should raise eyebrows given questions regarding the connections of some players to the Liberal Party,” said Rempel..“Also of note is that the contracts included things like advice on “tone.” As I wrote earlier this year, instead of hiring these fixers, David Johnston probably should have resigned earlier.”.Rempel expects the Trudeau government to pay “nearly 100%” of the value of the contracts even though Johnston resigned early..“Given that these expenses aided in the Liberal government’s delay of a much-needed public inquiry into foreign interference, the need to release just how far shy of paying out the total value of these contracts they came,” said Rempel. .“Based on their track record, I suspect it will be nearly 100%.”.Rempel’s Order Paper Question about the new Canadian passports showed the Trudeau government spent nearly $300 million..“Weeks after Canada’s new passport was discovered to be, putting it mildly, less than durable, a response to an Order Paper Question I received moments ago shows that the Liberal government spent nearly $300M on its design and printing,” said Rempel..“The news comes after months of debate over the need for the passport overhaul and a questionable end product.".The Order Paper Question that Rempel received outlined the following:.“(a) The newly unveiled Canadian passport was delivered as part of a comprehensive project led by IRCC to replace the passport booklet and all related production printing equipment and infrastructure to produce this new passport. The Treasury Board of Canada has approved a project budget of $161M for this project which began in 2016, which includes costs payable to the Canadian Bank Note Company (CBN) for various project deliverables.”.“(b) As part of the project, Canada launched a competitive procurement process in June 2016, and on May 24, 2019, a contract was awarded to the CBN to deliver this solution for the Government of Canada. CBN was responsible per the contract for the development of the designs for the new passport following the decision on theme by the Minister of IRC. The contract was awarded for $284M, as posted on Buy and Sell, for printed matter, including books, newspapers, pictures, manuscripts and forms.”.“If I read this right, the $hitty passport actually came in nearly $100M over budget and took nearly seven years for the Liberal government to release. Yikes,” said Rempel.
