Well, first of all, the head of the largest public sector union testified that, no, the public service could have done it, and I would presume he would have connections and contacts with top-level people and be able to check on something like that before saying it.
Second, though, thousands of applications were already being processed by the Canada Service Corps and Canada summer jobs. It is easier to just expand that and continue processing those applications. We know now some of the details of what WE Charity was going through to try to start up and implement this program. Even if you are going to contract it out—I know there was a rush, but there are rules in the Financial Administration Act, whereby you can put out a contract for bidding for 10 days.
If you're in a rush and there is something that needs to get done really quickly—although I don't really think it had to get done as quickly as everyone is proposing—then that 10-day rule could have been used and some of the 20 groups that were supposedly reviewed but most of which were never even contacted would have, I'm sure, put in a proposal if they would have known that they would be getting $33 million to administer it. They might not have the internal capacity without the $33 million, just as WE Charity didn't, but if they knew $33 million was on the table, then I would bet you would have seen half a dozen applications at least from things like the Boys and Girls Club and the United Way and you would have had a competitive bidding process.
So there was no reason to break the rules. There's no reason to break the rules in this crisis in any way, including in terms of not having Parliament fully open to be reviewing government and holding government accountable. You just do things faster, but you don't have to completely throw out rules and compliance with the rules in this situation at all.