I want to inform the committee that I haven't been in touch with SDTC for several months, even years. Personally, I haven't spoken to the board chair or the president of the organization. Our officials do that work, and I think that's the correct way to proceed.
We obviously have rights under the contribution agreement. In the spirit of transparency, we asked the organization's officials to open their books and establish a process that would enable their employees to speak freely, and they said yes. We must proceed in that spirit of transparency and good governance, and I hope the committee will meet with SDTC's officers and ask them to do so, but I can tell you that we asked them to do certain things and they agreed. We also asked them to implement an action plan, and they said they would also do that because I think they feel, as Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton indicated in their report, that they can do better in certain areas.
Personally, as a lawyer and minister, I expect the highest standards to be met at any organization that receives public funding, and we made our requests to SDTC in that spirit. Canadians are watching us today, and I'm saying this to everyone: I'm prepared to take all appropriate and necessary measures to get to the bottom of this matter and to ensure that it's done in the spirit of transparency and good governance. I want people to be reassured at the end of this process.
If employees have evidence to bring forward, we will establish a process for them to do so because we have to shed all possible light on this. This is an organization that has been in existence since 2001 and that has helped more than 500 companies across the country. So we must proceed cautiously to preserve what is good and correct what has to be corrected.