Certainly. The contracting policy of Treasury Board states, in section 8.2.1, that the minister “customarily delegates contracting authority” to public servants, but it doesn't say he's required to do so. When you combine that with the Conflict of Interest Act, allowing ministers to intervene in matters of general application...and, again, we don't know what that means, because the Ethics Commissioner has not drawn that line. Obviously it's a line in the sand that can be blown away very easily, and anyone can define it however they want. We think an RFP going out to many companies is a matter of general application, not as general as a law that applies to a ton of different companies, but still fairly general.
Tell me, where are the lines of cabinet minister responsibility and accountability versus what their staff do versus what senior public servants do? I don't see anywhere, in any law, where those lines are very clear. It's a wide open situation in terms of being involved and then denying that the involvement was improper or that this amounts to something the minister is responsible for if the staff did it on behalf of the minister.