Finance committee  Is that any better?

Finance committee  Thank you. Subsequent events have raised questions about how the decision was actually made. We ask why the federal public service was not directed to administer the student grant program in the first place. At one point, the Prime Minister claimed that WE Charity was the only o

Finance committee  Thank you. No problem. My apologies, especially to the interpreters in the booth. Students may actually end up making even less than $10 an hour. The grant will be calculated using 100-hour thresholds and will be rounded down. Students need to work a full 100 hours to get any m

Finance committee  Yes, Mr. Cooper, absolutely. I mean, the public service right now administers hundreds of grants, everything from agriculture to scientific research. Certainly, I think we demonstrated very clearly at the outset of this pandemic that we were able to adapt very quickly, as I sai

Finance committee  Yes, it is, absolutely. There are a number of programs for students, and for youth as well, as you pointed out, that are administered within the federal public service.

Finance committee  Yes, exactly, and I made reference to that in my statement.

Finance committee  I'm not too sure what the basis of that statement may have been. I'm not privy to that. All I can say is that we have demonstrated throughout this pandemic that the public service certainly is very capable of producing programs and has been able to benefit Canadians in times li

Finance committee  Of the things you just listed, Mr. Cooper, I can't see any of those not being able to be performed within the federal public service.

Finance committee  Because they already are. They are already administering such things as the ones you just announced.

Finance committee  Absolutely. We certainly did a very quick turnaround, as I said, on CERB, and the emergency wage subsidy as well. Those two programs were delivered by federal public sectors, seamlessly, I believe.

Finance committee  Again, I can't comment specifically on what you just read.

Finance committee  Yes, which is obviously.... The only people that is detrimental to, of course, are the students who are relying on this program.

Finance committee  Well, as I said, when the Prime Minister announced that WE Charity was the only organization capable, and then you look and realize that $43.5 million was being given to WE to ensure that they were able to administer the program, one would have to question that, absolutely.

Finance committee  As I said, this kind of program is already being administered within the federal public service, along with many others as well, so when we saw that this particular one was being contracted out, we had to ask why. Why is this being contracted out? Why should any federal program b

Finance committee  Certainly, from time to time it probably would be advantageous for the government and for those non-profits to do such work. The oversight of that work still has to be maintained within the public service. I would suggest that what you're saying should be the exception rather tha