Public Accounts committee  This is our last one-hour segment, colleagues, and we're very pleased to have with us the Minister of Finance, the Honourable Jim Flaherty. Welcome, Minister Flaherty. Before we go to the first round, I'm going to urge the members again. We are dealing with very specific contracts, and I'd ask the members to keep your questions short, brief, succinct, and I would ask Mr.

Public Accounts committee  Today you find yourself before the public accounts committee because your friend—as you've noted—Jim Flaherty guided and steered a Treasury Board rules-breaking untendered contract for over $120,000 to you while you worked on his speech and communications strategy. How many hours were you actually contracted to work?

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Williams has made an amendment that reference to the Honourable Jim Flaherty, Mr. Hugh MacPhie, and Sara Beth Mintz be removed from the motion. Perhaps I'll allow you a minute, Mr. Wrzesnewskyj.

Public Accounts committee  Williams; it's pretty straightforward. The amendment is that the reference to the Honourable Jim Flaherty, Hugh MacPhie, and Sara Beth Mintz be deleted from the motion. (Amendment negatived) Now we're going to go back to the motion, and I'm going to put that to a vote. Mr. Hubbard has requested a recorded vote, so I will turn it over to the clerk.

Public Accounts committee  I think the motion is self-explanatory. Perhaps I could add a couple of words to the motion. The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Canada's Minister of Finance, is not a rookie politician. In fact, he's quite the opposite. He's a very experienced politician. That's why it's quite worrisome that there was this violation of Treasury Board guidelines.

Finance committee  This is when we had one of our meetings and the Minister of Finance was here: OTTAWA - Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says problems associated with Canada's high dollar are diminishing, although there is no quick solution on the horizon. After Tuesday's hearings before the finance committee in which manufacturers pleaded for relief from the impact of the strong loonie, Flaherty said while the Bank of Canada and the government have “some tools,” there's no quick fix for currency fluctuations.

Industry committee  Mr. Lewis, the Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, made an announcement a week or so ago in Mississauga, a place known as Pill Hill in Toronto. I'm wondering if you would like to make some comments as to whether or not you think that will be effective in concert with this legislation, and whether you will see that as an opportunity to begin the ball rolling towards getting these necessary drugs to those who truly need our help in Africa.

David Dingwall  I wonder if we should also have an examination of the expenditures of Conservative candidates like John Baird and Jim Flaherty who continue to draw salaries from Ontario taxpayers while campaigning for the federal Conservative Party. Maybe that should be investigated.