Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Bahen and Mr. Thomson, for your testimony before our committee this morning.
Prior to having the privilege of serving my constituents and Canadians, I was in retail financial services and the investment profession for many years in a supervisory and leadership position. If one of my investment advisers had told me that he or she had bought their client a country's or company's bonds that were paying a good return and fitted with the client's investment strategy, a key indicator that I would ask the adviser to confirm would be what the Standard & Poor's and Moody's ratings were on that bond.
Much like I would look at the ratings of a bond, I would imagine the federal government and its civil servants would have, and may have, turned to Charity Intelligence to look at the ratings of charities being considered to administer its programs. Looking at your rating system for WE Charity, based on your own metrics available at the time that WE Charity was being considered and not the updated info you put out three weeks ago on July 10, and the fact that the public service recommended them for a specific task, was it not reasonable to conclude that WE Charity was in good standing, based on your own ratings at the time?