I believe that the public service was trying to act quickly in an emergency. I will tell you that, while they were given flexibility from the Treasury Board Secretariat to reduce some of the normal processes and red tape, it also came with a reminder that exercising due diligence and demonstrating prudent use of public funds should be done. I think that, here, an emergency was not an excuse to throw out the window the basic rules that the public service normally follows. I would expect better from the public service, and I have seen the public service do better.
On February 12th, 2024. See this statement in context.