Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  I wasn't, Chair. Whether officials at PCO would have been aware at that point of the development, I do not know.

Finance committee  I can verify, but I don't believe so. But—

Finance committee  We'll include that in what we provide.

Finance committee  If there is such a thing, we can provide all of that. My intention, Chair, is to be as expansive as possible in the information we provide to the committee.

Finance committee  That “ought” assumes that there was a failure of duty, and I'm not prepared to accept that assertion. I do not know what information was available to whom on the broader dealings of the organization, which I understand is a complex organization. I can only repeat for the committee, Chair, that the due diligence of the public service related to the ability of WE Charity to deliver this program.

Finance committee  My understanding...and I want to underline to the committee, Chair, that I am not the file expert, and one of my many flaws is a non-encyclopedic memory. But my understanding is that this was intended to help provide for the needs of students who, because of the inability to have part-time work or perhaps the support from families that have been affected by job loss, etc., were not able to access the CERB and they could very well be in hard times in terms of their own income.

Finance committee  I did not.

Finance committee  I see no reason we would not support the committee that way.

Finance committee  If she were promoted to a Governor in Council position, that would be the case, but I can tell you that a public servant moving to another job within the public service not involving a Governor in Council appointment is often treated as a promotion, so not necessarily.

Finance committee  That is an entirely reasonable line of inquiry, of course. What I have said to the committee is that, to the best of my knowledge, those issues were not raised. What I have also said, and I repeat, is that the focus with respect to this contribution agreement had to do with the capacity of the organization effectively to deliver the program.

Finance committee  No, he did not. The initial announcement explicitly, if I remember correctly, included the Prime Minister indicating that further details would follow, that there would have to be further development of the program. This was the announcement by the Prime Minister that many of the gaps affecting students, that had arisen as a result of the pandemic, the government fully intended to address, and there would be a program along these lines.

Finance committee  Within the bounds of my responsibility, Chair, of course I will co-operate with the Ethics Commissioner, as I would assert I did a year ago in relation to the previous issue. The committee will recall that the government itself had given a waiver of many of the cabinet confidences.

Finance committee  I do know that early in the development of policy, meetings were held with a range of non-profit organizations, voluntary organizations, and so on. WE Charity was one of those consulted. We can provide you with the full list of organizations that were consulted. I would say, at the front end of this, it was a wide open process.

Finance committee  The convention is that the secretary to the cabinet has the authority to waive cabinet confidences. There's jurisprudence on this. As was clear from the SNC-Lavalin case, the Prime Minister himself, of course, can opt to waive cabinet confidence, but traditionally that duty falls to the clerk and there is jurisprudence on the criteria that the clerk has to follow on this.