Mr. Speaker, I will of course wait for the response of the ethics counsellor. It is known in this House that there is considerable concern about the degree to which that officer, who does not report to Parliament, is bound by the same obligations to be forthcoming, as is the case with officers of Parliament.
Some very important questions surround the member for LaSalle—Émard. Why was he given a blind management trust of a kind that was never available to a Canadian cabinet minister ever before and that allowed him to be briefed regularly on the business affairs of his company at the same time as he was functioning as minister of finance? We were told at one point that there were only 12 such briefings. It now appears that there may have been more than that, if I correctly heard the ethics counsellor, there may have been as many as 30.
Why, if he changed the nature of his shares in Sheilamart, did that occur? What consideration was given to Passage Holdings to give him this new class of shares? Was there some transaction that occurred out of public view in Canada that would give us a clearer understanding of the financial situation of the man who would be prime minister?
Why was there no reference to Sheilamart in the letter that was written by his lawyer, which has now been filed on the website of the ethics counsellor and has the status of an official document?
I see my time up. These are pressing questions that are of interest to the ethics counsellor, but also to the people of the country.