I always intended to pay the full cost of these trips, and it was my responsibility to make sure that was done
Mr. Morneau told members of the House of Commons finance committee on Wednesday afternoon.
The Minister of Finance argued that the UNIS organization had not submitted invoices to him following these two trips. One was performed by his daughter and wife in Kenya in 2017 to discover UNIS projects around schools
and the other, in Ecuador, in which he and his family took part in the same year.
By diving back recently into his papers, Mr. Morneau claims to have found payments relating to the expenses of these two trips, including flights and hotel expenses amounting to approximately $ 52,000
, but was unable to locate receipts for expenses associated with UNIS programs.
$ 41,000 to travel is prohibited. Ministers should not be paid for their travel
, recalled NDP MP Charlie Angus.
For Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre, Mr. Morneau committed an illegal act as a minister, since he accepted a trip paid for by a third party. Therefore, he asks the minister to resign, since he lost moral authority
necessary for its function.
The Conflict of Interest Act prohibits any public office holder and any member of his or her family from accepting any gift or other benefit
who could influence him in his duties.
Conflict of Interest Act
Article 6 : Any public office holder is prohibited from making a decision or participating in the making of a decision in the exercise of his or her office if he knows or should reasonably know that, in making this decision, he could be in conflict of interest situation.
Article 11 : Any public office holder and any member of his or her family are prohibited from accepting any gift or other benefit, including one from a trust, which could reasonably be seen to have been given to influence the holder. in the performance of their official duties.
–
In the wake of these new revelations, the leader of the Conservative Party, Andrew Scheer has called for the resignation of the Minister of Finance.
It is unacceptable for a minister to accept vacations and travel. It is unacceptable that Mr. Morneau decided to pay the expenses on the day of his testimony [au comité des finances].
For its part, the Prime Minister’s office hastened to support its minister in the turmoil. A spokesperson points out that he was frank and direct with the committee and transparent with Canadians today. Since the start of the pandemic, he has worked tirelessly with his cabinet colleagues to provide vital support to Canadians. Minister Morneau continues to do the work Canadians count on
.
Hounded by the opposition for several days, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to testify before the Parliamentary Finance Committee about his firm’s award of the management of the Canada Student Volunteer Grant.
Double MEA culpa
Faced with the indignant reactions of the deputies present at the Finance Committee, Bill Morneau chose as a line of defense the ethics of MEA culpa.
Mr. Morneau reiterated his apologies for not to have recused himself from cabinet discussions on the awarding of the controversial contract to UNIS, despite the collaboration of two members of his immediate family with the charity.
He repeated to the committee that he had only followed the recommendations made by the public service, which is working with a lot of intelligence
.
As for the possibility of submitting a simplified call for tenders in order to speed up the decision-making process in exceptional circumstances, the Minister of Finance replied that he had simply stuck to the recommendation made to him.
Mr. Morneau also clarified certain links between his family and UNIS: my daughter Claire has lectured at UNIS, as at other events, about her book documenting the lives of refugees. She never received compensation [financière] for his interventions. All the funds raised by her book went to finance girls’ education
.
As for her daughter Grace, sponsored in Uganda in 2010, she would have worked for UNIS as an unpaid student intern, in February and March 2019
.
In July 2019, she was hired by UNIS for a month; she then obtained a one-year contract as an administrative assistant in the travel department. This contract will expire at the end of August
, says Morneau.
The minister also said his family made two donations totaling $ 100,000 to the UNIS charity – in April 2018 and June this year – to support the organization’s work with students in Canada as well as as for aid to Kenya in connection with the pandemic.
The revelations come as the Liberal government comes under fire for its close ties to the charity it had chosen to run a $ 900 million student volunteer program.
–
