Finance committee  Is there any way that you.... Obviously, especially given what you've just indicated, you may not have been the person who would have received those kinds of representations if they were made. Could you go back and provide us with an answer as to whether anyone in the department was in fact receiving these kinds of representations or lobbying from the minister or his staff on behalf of SNC-Lavalin?

Finance committee  —but I'm going to point out that there is relevance here. You're going to just have to allow me a little latitude to get to it.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to read something first and then I have a question. I'm going to point out, Mr. Chair, that you're probably going to be a little itchy to cut me off on this—

Finance committee  Could I respond to that point of order, Mr. Chair?

Finance committee  Yesterday, Ms. Jody Wilson-Raybould testified before the justice committee. I want to read little excerpts from her testimony, and then I'll indicate why I'm asking you about this. She said, “For a period of approximately four months, between September and December of 2018, I experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in my role as the Attorney General of Canada in an inappropriate effort to secure a deferred prosecution agreement with SNC-Lavalin.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and it will, I assure you. She said, “These events involved 11 people...from the Prime Minister's Office, the Privy Council Office, and the office of the Minister of Finance. These included in-person conversations, telephone calls, emails and text messages.”

Finance committee  Oh, I certainly can, Mr. Chair.

Finance committee  Thank you. I appreciate that. You mentioned the idea of consistency with the way you're applying these, and that was actually what I wanted to follow up on. What some of these campgrounds are finding is that they're doing exactly what they've always done and then all of a sudden they're being reassessed going back several years.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, you indicated that I had to let him finish and then you didn't give me time.

Finance committee  Can I interrupt you there?

Finance committee  Come on, Mr. Chair. The reason why I chose to ask to interrupt when I did was so that I—

Finance committee  On a point of order, Mr. Chair, when a member of Parliament in this committee has the floor, the floor is theirs. You indicated that you wanted to have me let him finish. Out of politeness I did so. Having said that, I understood that my time was short. My understanding from what you had said was that you were going to give me an opportunity to ask the follow-up question I had.

Finance committee  I suspect the desire not to answer that probably speaks for itself, Mr. Chair, but I don't blame him for not wanting to. I would like to ask about something I have asked before at committee and elsewhere of both the elected officials and you. This is the issue of the government unfairly targeting some small businesses, and it has to do with rules that determine active versus passive income and how those rules are affecting some small businesses, like campgrounds, mini-storage companies and others.

Finance committee  Okay. If you would allow that, I would love to hear what—

Finance committee  It's even worse, then, than what I said.