Evidence of meeting #47 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cabinet.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Prime Minister, there was no vetting done of WE Charity. There are major concerns with this organization. Who is responsible for the vetting?
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
The public service would have done their due diligence to ensure which organizations could deliver the program as we had laid it out. They found that only WE Charity had the ability to do that through their due diligence process.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
The organization that you approved, sir, was....
You had a massive contract given to a shell company with no experience running a government grant program. That's a problem. Someone should be held accountable. Who are you going to fire?
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
Mr. Barrett, the public service has delivered extraordinary programs, including with third party organizations. When we wanted to help out shelters, we went through United Way. When we wanted to help food banks, the public service reached out to Food Banks Canada to make sure they could get that money out. They have consistently worked with third party organizations. As part of their decision to do that, they have done full due diligence on that organization's ability to deliver the program, and—
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Prime Minister, cabinet is responsible for decisions, not the public service. A major mistake was made. Someone in cabinet should be held accountable. Which minister will you fire: Minister Morneau, Minister Chagger? Which minister?
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
The decision in cabinet was not as to which organization should deliver the Canada student summer grant. The decision in cabinet was, should we have a summer grant program or not? That was the binary choice given to us by the public service and the minister. Cabinet made the decision that making training opportunities for young people to serve—
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Do you still think WE was a good choice to run this program, sir?
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
We will never know, because they pulled out of being able to deliver the program, partially because I hadn't recused myself and created complications here. That's something I deeply regret, because creating opportunities for young people to serve is something that matters deeply to all Canadians across the country.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
I won't take the time from you, Mr. Barrett, but somebody has their mike on and some sound is coming through.
Go ahead, Mr. Barrett.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Were you aware that the WE organization had fired its board chair shortly before they were given this contract?
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Were you aware that WE had fired a very large portion of its staff?
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
How many times did your family members receive remuneration from this organization since you were elected as Prime Minister?
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
As I said, my wife works on an unpaid basis for WE and other organizations, and had it cleared by the Ethics Commissioner in advance for both her engagement—because she's been an advocate and a TV and radio host professionally through her entire career—and her activities with this organization and other organizations, for free, being reimbursed for expenses. It was cleared by the Ethics Commissioner when she first wanted to become an advocate around these issues with that organization.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
So every dollar that your wife received in reimbursement or in payment was cleared in advance by the commissioner.
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
As I said, Mr. Barrett, this was unpaid work my wife was doing for a cause she believes in deeply, talking about destigmatization of mental health and empowerment of young people, particularly girls. This is something that she believes in deeply, and, yes, we got approval from the Ethics Commissioner that she could volunteer with this organization and have expenses related to that volunteerism reimbursed.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
I want to know if the Prime Minister can tell us what due diligence looks like. We have an organization that had no assets, it was a shell corporation, they were in violation of bank covenants, a fired board chair, they were firing employees and the Government of Canada handed over a $500-million contract for them to administer. What was the due diligence that was done, sir?
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
The public service ensures that any third party partner we work with on the delivery of a program is capable of delivering the program. They have a rigorous and strong process to do that, and I have confidence in our public service to be able to do that, particularly because during this time of pandemic they had demonstrated, with many third-party organizations, an ability to get help to Canadians in record fashion when people needed it the most.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you, both.
We're turning to Mr. McLeod, who will be followed by Mr. Poilievre on my list.
Mr. McLeod, you have five minutes.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you to the Prime Minister for joining us here today.
I'm glad that when the question was brought to the cabinet table to run a summer student program you said yes. I think it's very important that we do so, and I think it is something that we should continue to try to achieve.
This is our fifth meeting on the topic of government spending, WE and the Canada student service grant. Throughout this whole study my greatest concern is that, for the whole month since it was determined WE was no longer going to administer the program, the program is now in jeopardy. That is one whole month that youth have missed out on the experiences and assistance the Canada student service grant could have provided in many parts of the country, including here in the north—I'm the member of Parliament for the Northwest Territories, for those that don't know—and indigenous communities. Many of our youth already face many barriers to opportunities that other parts of the country enjoy. We are remote. We struggle with connectivity. There's a high cost of living.
Is the government is going to address the fact that our youth have lost out because of this delay?