Mr. Flaherty, we've seen that your office has handed out an abnormally high number of contracts valued just below $25,000, the limit prescribed by Treasury Board guidelines for untendered contracts. In fact, the number is approximately 67% higher than that of other major ministries.
What's even more worrisome is that many of these seem to have something in common. They have gone to supporters of your leadership bids or to people who have worked with you or with the former premier of Ontario.
You've stated, over and over, that this was a matter of trust. You used the words “trustworthy” and “trust” over and over. You said that you trusted Mr. MacPhie.
We've heard from the deputy minister that you had a communications team in the Department of Finance of 60 experts, highly qualified people. In saying that you did this because Mr. MacPhie was trusted, are you implying that your department was not?