Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Former Liberal minister Bains, you continue to be less than forthcoming about your active involvement in hand-picking conflict-ridden Annette Verschuren as chair of SDTC. You have repeatedly represented that you got a recommendation from the PCO and that it was only thereafter that you made the decision to appoint Ms. Verschuren, as if your role was passive, but that isn't true, and you know it not to be true.
You received a list of five recommended candidates from the PCO in March of 2019. You ignored that list. In April of 2019, you contacted Ms. Verschuren and asked her to apply for the role. It was only thereafter that Ms. Verschuren applied. It wasn't the PCO that reached out to her; it was you, and that is detailed in the Ethics Commissioner's report, so why do you continue to mislead the committee?