Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to come back to some aspects of what was discussed yesterday and provide some clarifications. In fact, I would like to cover three aspects this morning, if I may.
The first deals with factors that were discussed at length yesterday, and led to my decision, which has been the subject of several discussions at this committee. It seems there is some confusion about those factors. I would first simply like to point out to the committee members that the word "factor" includes the word "fact". Yesterday there was a lot of talk about some of those factors that are not in the Act. I would simply like to point out that the Act requires that the Chief Electoral Officer certify that reimbursement for an expense may legally be made before that happens.
How does the Chief Electoral Officer determine that an expense is eligible? He does this by applying the definitions in the Act that provide that an election expense must be incurred by candidates at fair market value. In this case, it had to be determined whether the expense was actually incurred and whether it was in fact incurred at the commercial value, as the Act requires. I concluded that the expenses as submitted had not been incurred at their fair market value.
The facts that led to that decision are as I stated yesterday. The first fact was the lack of knowledge on the part of the candidates when they were questioned about the nature of the expense. That fact in itself is not sufficient for reaching a conclusion. However, we asked other questions, given the lack of knowledge about the expense. We asked for documentary evidence, for example the existence of contracts or documents that could have established a contractual arrangement between the campaign and the supplier of the service. Once again, the candidates were unable to provide us with that documentary evidence. The absence of sufficient documentary evidence is the second fact I considered.
The third fact was that the Party had made representations stating that all contractual arrangements had been made by the Party and invoices were sent to the Party.
The fourth fact was that the candidates received invoices from the party rather than from the service supplier, and the fact that the money used to pay the expense submitted to us was under the Party's control at all times. And the last fact was that the allocation of costs for the claims submitted to us did not reflect the fair market value.
These facts led me to conclude that, under the Act, the expense had not been incurred by the candidate and in any event did not represent the commercial value. I simply wanted to make these clarifications, in view of what I saw as being confusion yesterday.
The second aspect I would like to raise with the committee today deals with the nature of the questions I was asked yesterday. I tried, in all good faith, to answer the questions put to me as completely as possible. However, I noticed that some of the questions I was asked yesterday had already been asked in Federal Court during the cross-examination of Elections Canada representatives in the court case.
I simply want to point out that Ms. Vézina's testimony in Federal Court represents the position of Elections Canada in this case, that the affidavit of Elections Canada in the case is in the public domain and is part of the Court's record, that Ms. Vézina was cross-examined for nearly four days, and that the transcript of Ms. Vézina's cross-examination is now in the public domain because it has been placed in the Federal Court record.
Once again, I want to assure the committee of my desire to cooperate as fully as possible in its deliberations. However, in view of the fact that there is a case before the Court, I must refuse to answer questions that are now before the Court, out of respect for the courts. I would also not want anyone to accuse me or accuse Elections Canada of using this forum to improve its position in the courts. I would like the committee's assurance that it understands this.
The third aspect I would like to come back to this morning, further to my testimony yesterday, deals with the allegation of a leak in relation to the search that took place in this case. Although I find it hard to see any connection with the committee's terms of reference and the motion before the committee, I confirmed that the allegation made in the media had disturbed me. I also informed the committee that at the time I had quickly done a brief review of the situation and come to the conclusion that, in my opinion, there were no reasonable grounds to believe that there had been any leak originating with Elections Canada.
I understand that there is a motion before the committee that could request me or direct me—it was not entirely clear from what I heard yesterday—to order an independent investigation. Before committing public funds for such an investigation, I would ask, with all due respect, that the committee, if it considers it appropriate, state the considerations that might prompt it to pass such a motion, specify the allegations regarding the leak, and, if possible, specify the sources of the leak. I would also ask that the committee specify as best it can what the ins and outs of the investigation would be, so that the terms of reference for an independent investigator could clearly state the committee's expectations and, if the motion were to be passed, the report could meet the committee's expectations.