First, I would also like to thank you for your leadership on this major project, Ms. Lapointe.
Many questions have been put to me. As for the high-speed rail project itself, let me read you the following: “The Trois-Rivières Chamber of Commerce is calling on elected officials and organizations in the Mauricie region to take action to ensure the high-speed train runs along the north shore.” This is an article published by Radio-Canada on February 15, 2010, so this widely known project has been in the public eye for a very long time.
In my part of the country, we were even talking about this project five years before I was elected to Parliament. A great deal of information about this major project is publicly known. If you visit the Transport Canada website, you'll see the mandate entrusted to the Crown corporation for one of Canada's largest infrastructure projects, if not the largest.
I've been a member of Parliament for over a decade. I have always acted with the utmost integrity. As an MP and a minister, I believe we must comply with all the rules. For my part, I chose to go a step further—namely, to apply a conflict-of-interest screen so that the decisions directly affecting this major high-speed rail project would not involve me. I believe that was the right thing to do. I am a legal expert, a lawyer, and I served as chief ethics officer for five to eight years while working in London before entering politics. I would say that when it comes to ethics, I have specific knowledge of the processes and principles that must be put in place—both in the public sector and in large corporations. In the public service, it is the trust of Canadians that matters. I did this because I want Canadians to have faith in our system.
As you said, our legislative framework is among the strictest and most comprehensive in the G7 and the OECD. With that in mind, I understand the decision of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner. As you saw, his response to me was quite substantial. I'll quote his reply to an email: “There is therefore no risk of a conflict of interest, and a screen is not required.” That message, dated April 7, 2026, was in response to my request for confirmation.
Compliance with the law is obviously first and foremost, but as minister, I decided to go a step further by stating that we will implement a screening process. As I mentioned to Mr. Brassard, your committee chair, this process has been well established for several years now. I've been a cabinet minister for about 10 years. I've seen filters like these applied at various times, and I believe it's the right thing to do. The committee should have complete confidence that we will act in an exemplary manner on this issue, in the best interests of Canadians. That is why I'm pleased to answer my colleagues' questions today.