Mr. Speaker, earlier the minister said, “We take great issue” with this payment. That is not true. When the story of Nigel Wright's $90,000 cheque broke in the media, the Conservatives were repeatedly praising him for “ensuring taxpayers would not be on the hook”.
Why would taxpayers ever be on the hook for this? Did the Conservatives not expect Senator Duffy to pay back these ill-gotten expense gains? Who else in the Prime Minister's Office actually knew about his chief of staff's unethical and illegal gift?