Series consists of records generated while Gillespie was Vice-Chairman of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, Trade, and Economic Affairs (1968-1970) and chairman of various caucus committees and sub-committees on Liberal economic policy and programmes (1970-1971). The records include correspondence, memoranda, press releases, reports, submissions, briefs, minutes, itineraries, schedules, background briefings, and newspaper clippings documenting the activities and operations of the Finance Committee. A large part of the series is submissions from Canadian businesses, corporations, and their associations, as well as from eight provincial governments. The correspondence between Gillespie and senior Liberals - Cabinet Ministers, the PMO, and Gaston Clermont (Chairman of this Committee) is significant. Extensive personal notes, memos, speeches, correspondence, and drafts by Gillespie are also here.
The series also documents the Standing Committee's work on issues such as the restructuring of Canada's anti-dumping laws, interest rates and inflation, the White Paper on tax reform, the Canada Corporation Act (Bill C-4), the Canada Development Corporation, amendments to the Trust Companies Act, and proposed amendments to the Loan Companies Act. The series also includes records of Gillespie's work on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts, such as the Auditor General of Canada Act clarifying the role of the Auditor-General, consideration of income tax deductions for CBC employees working abroad (specifically in the US), and a review of the refitting of HMCS Bonaventure.
The series includes Gillespie's research on several issues, including foreign ownership and its impact on national economic policy, publishing, Research and Development ("R&D"), and Arctic sovereignty. The 17 files (vol. 23, file 6 - vol. 24, file 1) of that research contain correspondence from Gillespie's circle of supporters, friends, and business people. A series of newspaper articles in which Gillespie published his conclusions is also here. His other research included the Liberal caucus committee, and input into a speech by the Prime Minister to the Canadian Manufacturers Association. With those records is one personal file of Gillespie's from the early 1950s on 'Responsible Enterprise'. Its presence suggests the continuity of his economic interests and views. As with many other parts of the fonds, these records contain extensive marginalia, 'self-memos', and handwritten comments by Gillespie.
