Mr. Chair, in the midst of this pandemic, which has been a very unprecedented and challenging time, there are numerous programs being provided to Canadians to ensure that they have the support needed. Our focus has always been on Canadians and making sure mechanisms are in place. The non-partisan and professional public service is actually delivering many programs. At that time, they were also delivering the Canada emergency response benefit in addition to numerous other programs and at a greater scale than had ever been seen.
I would like to assure the member that I asked the same question about why the public service could not offer this program. Third parties had been used pre-COVID, but also during the COVID context it was recommended that WE Charity be used because they had the capacity as well as the network to be able to deliver this program. It was a recommendation that was made. I asked a lot of tough questions to see if there were others. The public service, and I am confident that they did their due diligence, was confident that this was the only organization that could provide this program in the timeline needed. I accepted their recommendation.