Madam Speaker, the reality of these mandate letters is that they were not written for the finance minister or for ministers in general. They were for public consumption. They said things the government wanted the public to think were instructions to the minister, when in fact, the permissive attitude taken by the Prime Minister and the cabinet toward the finance minister makes very clear that the Prime Minister and the government do not at all take seriously the ethical injunctions that were put in those documents for public consumption.
We have a very clear case where the finance minister continued to own shares and significantly profit from something happening outside of his office while he was regulating the company he continued to own shares in. That is an obvious conflict of interest. He should not need to ask the Ethics Commissioner to know that it is completely unacceptable and unethical.
Can the member clarify her thoughts on the reality that the government does not take the ethical instructions to its ministers in the mandate letters at all seriously?