Mr. Speaker, the rest of the relationship between the finance minister and these corporations will be explored later on. Right now what we are talking about is the finance minister's own department.
On July 8, two days after the ethics counsellor had warned the finance department that it had those documents in its possession, the very same finance department wrote back to us and said the following:
I must inform you that after a thorough search no records were found to respond to either of your requests.
Why did the finance department deny that it was in possession of these crucial documents when these documents were sitting on the finance department's desk?