Mr. Speaker, it may have been badly needed but it may have been because an election was just around the corner.
The Prime Minister and the Minister of Human Resources Development keep trying to convince us that this was a normal grant process, but let us look at the facts.
The Prime Minister announced a $600,000 grant just before an election, three months before the officials in the federal department approved it and six months before Quebec approved it. His public announcement was then used by the bureaucracy as an excuse to rapidly move it through the system and guarantee its approval.
No other MP could ever get away with making that announcement before it was properly approved. Why does the Prime Minister not just admit that the reason the grant was approved was that he announced it ahead of time?