Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Dion, for your presence here today. We certainly hope you and your family and loved ones are staying safe and healthy during this pandemic.
You're getting a bunch of questions in part because this committee was shut down in August. At the end of July and in early August, we had important testimony on ethical considerations, and then the entire Parliament was shut down in mid-August, as you know, with prorogation. Subsequent to that, the finance committee has been held up for the last two months because Liberal members didn't want these documents discussed. So, it's been four months since the finance committee has actually been able to question a witness on these important things.
I guess I apologize on behalf of the entire committee. Because of all this shutdown and basically the committee's being suppressed, we now have a bunch of questions to ask.
My questions relate to the Prime Minister's testimony before us on July 30 and Mr. Shugart's on July 21. Mr. Shugart testified just before prorogation that there were two cabinet discussions around the issue of the WE Charity and the substantial funding that the federal government wanted to put. He also testified that the Prime Minister had concerns—and the Prime Minister testified about this as well—around possible conflicts of interest.
I want to ask you, first, if the Prime Minister or the Prime Minister's Office contacted you or the Ethics Commissioner's office around a potential conflict of interest? Would you expect that they normally would, if there were potential conflicts of interest, actually reach out to you? Have you received the cabinet documents that reference the two discussions that cabinet had around this program?