Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank you, as well as your team and all the pages, for being here so late and joining me for this final late show tonight. I am pleased to be here. I especially want to thank the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance and member for Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe for being here tonight. I am particularly pleased that she is the one who is here to answer my questions about government appointments because we are going to talk about big dollar amounts, and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance is very knowledgeable in that area.
On May 18, I had the opportunity to talk about Ms. Meilleur's appointment to the position of official languages commissioner. At that time, I reminded the House of something that happened in 2015: the Liberal Party was elected and many people started to dream. Liberal supporters, particularly Liberal donors, started to dream of the golden road that leads to an official position within the Government of Canada, which had now become accessible to them because of the money they donated to the party over the course of their lives.
We heard quite a few examples. Ms. Meilleur's case was particularly telling, and we have learned even more in recent days. With every passing day, it seems, we learn more about this appointment. For once thing, we learned that Ms. Meilleur made a generous $5,000 donation to the Liberal Party of Canada and another $500 donation to the Prime Minister's campaign. We also learned that two people on the Minister of Canadian Heritage's payroll used to work for Ms. Meilleur.
There were desperate attempts like the one on May 18 to explain about the rigorous, transparent, and open process leading up to Ms. Meilleur's appointment. There was even a suggestion that my colleague, the official languages critic, gave the appointment her blessing, which is way out of line. Acknowledging someone's merits is not the same as approving their appointment. Unfortunately, the Minister of Canadian Heritage used a friendly conversation with our critic to justify her choice. Personally, I think that using such conversations to justify the unjustifiable to everyone here is pretty low.
What the hon. Minister of Canadian Heritage said in her response really stuck with me. She said that she had a chance to speak with the party critic, that she did the interview herself for the final, definitive selection of the candidate for the position of official languages commissioner, and that it was a completely standard process. On May 18, however, the same day I asked that question, the official languages commissioner appointed by this government, Ms. Meilleur, confirmed that she had met with two important people from the Prime Minister's Office, two important people whose names are being repeated a lot in the House these days, Mr. Butts and Ms. Telford. We could find out exactly what their role is, but according to the minister, those individuals—