There, too, but my colleagues across the way have often said....
I apologize. I am raising a somewhat ideological question here.
My colleagues across the way often say governments cannot do everything, and I agree. I agree that governments cannot do everything. That is why, when the government, at the beginning of this crisis, understood that food banks were facing increased requests from those in need and it decided that it wanted to support food banks, it went to organizations that had broad reach, national scope. It went to Food Banks Canada and it went to the Salvation Army, and when the government decided that it wanted to help the non-profit sector because their revenues from donations were dropping precipitously, the government said, “We can't do this ourselves. We can't do everything”, and they went to see organizations like United Way, Centraide in Quebec.
Clearly, when it came time to roll out in very quick time a national volunteer program for youth, the public service recognized that the WE organization—and it was said at the finance committee yesterday—had the reach, the network, the goodwill of youth and the technological capability to handle that kind of rollout. Were there bumps in the road? Yes, Madam Chair, there were, and there always will be in government.
That is essentially the context in which we are having this discussion today. However, the main point I'm trying to make, and that my other colleagues have made, is that we have a very robust system for examining and investigating questions of ethics. We as a Parliament, as previous Parliaments, thought this matter of ethics was so important that it should be put in the hands of a qualified non-political person to conduct due process and that these matters needed to be dealt with in that way so that the political dimension does not interfere with due process. If it does, it does not serve our democracy well because it diminishes the faith that Canadians have in the systems and the institutions we've given ourselves as a democracy.
We need to recognize that this committee has important work to do. It has an important mandate. Also it's important to point out that when Ms. Shanahan spoke about mandate, what she was getting at is that this committee has a non-partisan role to play. Despite the fact, as Mr. Angus said, that committees can decide what they want to do, nonetheless they operate within frameworks and, especially a committee as important as the ethics committee, they have an interest in focusing on the broader principles and due process.
That is the point that Ms. Shanahan was making. It was not that committees are somehow constrained and do not have the liberty to look into what they want, but that it is very important that the ethics committee act in a professional and maybe a little less political manner than perhaps other committees, because it is important that the ethics committee maintains the faith of Canadians.
Madam Speaker—