Mr. Speaker, we now know that the Prime Minister was involved in breaking the rules governing the awarding of federal government grants in his riding.
The departmental officials did not want to allow the grants, but in a memo to a departmental official one of the HRD minister's own staff instructed that the dollar amounts given to the two hotels in the Prime Minister's riding had to be artificially inflated. Why? The memo stated that it was to keep the same amount suggested by the Prime Minister during discussions with the promoters.
The Prime Minister said that he was just doing a good job as a member of parliament. However, who really benefits when an MP breaks the rules, twists the arms of the bureaucrats and forces the ministerial staff to fudge their numbers?