Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister was informed as early as October 1 of the mistake made by the Minister of Canadian Heritage and decided to forget about it and not seek the advice of his ethics counsellor, Mr. Howard Wilson. The government consulted Mr. Wilson only at the very last moment, that is last Thursday, when the minister's mistake became public knowledge.
Are we to understand that, on October 1, the Prime Minister had already decided to keep his heritage minister, without having consulted his ethics counsellor?