Consul general to testify in September about $9M NYC luxury condo purchase after ‘convoluted back and forth’

OTTAWA — After much kerfuffle, Canada’s consul general in New York, Tom Clark, will finally be testifying in a House of Commons committee as early as September about the $9 million luxury condo purchased by the government to serve as his official residence.

At the start of a meeting on Tuesday, the chair of the government operations committee, Conservative MP Kelly McCauley, read a note from Global Affairs Canada (GAC) saying that Clark would be “pleased to make himself available” either September 4 or 12.

McCauley said the committee would aim to hear from him on September 12 or work with his office to find a later date that would suit him.

The move comes after Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett threatened to issue a summons to force Clark to appear at committee. Barrett said that he would hold off on the threat unless the consul general finds himself in “defiance” of the committee’s wishes.

“If Mr. Clark doesn’t come on that date, then he’ll have exhausted every reasonable courtesy that this committee could extend to him,” he said.

McCauley said it was his understanding Clark was supposed to be available to testify on Tuesday, based on an email exchange between the consul general’s staff and the committee’s clerk on Aug. 8, but GAC denies those claims and said the initial invitation was never accepted.

GAC said the clerk followed up two times — on August 14 and 21 — to verify if Clark was available. In the end, GAC said on August 22 that Clark would be unable to attend.

The confusion did not end there. McCauley said there was “a bit of convoluted back and forth” between the clerk and GAC prior to Tuesday’s meeting. The chair was initially told that setting another date for Clark to testify would have to wait until the end of his leave on Sept. 3.

However, the National Post was told that Clark was in the office on Monday when attempting to get more details about the reasons explaining his leave.

On Tuesday morning, GAC reached out to the committee to offer the two dates in September for his appearance. “It’s interesting to hear that we’ve had a change of heart by Justin Trudeau’s $9 million man Tom Clark,” said Barrett shortly after.

The committee has been studying the purchase of the new residence for Canada’s consul general in New York. The luxury condo was purchased for $8.8 million in a heritage building attached to Steinway Tower, a building known as the world’s thinnest skyscraper.

The opposition has criticized the price tag of the new residence and its luxurious components, but government officials have described the new residence as a good deal.

On Tuesday, in lieu of Clark, the committee heard from Jonathan Miller, a real estate appraiser based in New York City for the past 38 years and Thomas Aabo, a real estate agent whose firm was awarded a contract by GAC to secure the new residence.

Aabo said that his team presented 39 properties for consideration based on the government’s parameters, which was then narrowed down to 21 properties, then four, then two, then one. He also described the condo as a screaming deal.

“The residence was purchased at a 40 per cent discount against the original asking price, 10 per cent off the last asking price, coming to a $1,750 per square foot after concessions. This is by far the lowest price in the building,” he said.

Aabo said the condo was the last remaining unit in the building which ensured a good negotiating position to lower the price. “It is 70 per cent less than peer buildings in the neighbourhood that sell well over $5,000 a square foot,” he added.

Miller responded to claims that the new condo is located in an area known as “Billionaire’s Row” and said it is mostly a “marketing term.” “It’s an aspirational name, but it does not reflect the majority of the housing stock in that location,” he said.

Liberal MP Pam Damoff, who is parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, reminded MPs that the New York consulate is responsible for $200 billion a year of business and that its role is to host events that promote businesses within Canada.

“That’s a significant amount of money, and to portray this residence as simply a residence and not a residence and a place of business is misleading,” she said.

Aabo said that he did not meet Clark or anyone from his office until the final selection of the residence had been made. He said several individuals from the consulate, including Clark, came to tour the property as a “final bidding of some sort” once it was selected.

“To measure the drapes!” scoffed Conservative MP Larry Brock in the committee room.

National Post [email protected]

Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.