Case STATES: the opposition wants that Trudeau testifies before a parliamentary committee

The prime minister Justin Trudeau

Share

July 14, 2020 13h53

Updated at 20: 13

Share

Case STATES: the opposition wants that Trudeau testifies before a parliamentary committee

Lee Berthiaume

The Canadian Press

Catherine Lévesque

The canadian Press

OTTAWA – The opposition parties want to summon the prime minister Justin Trudeau in front of a parliamentary committee so that it can be explained on a contract of almost a billion dollars that has been entrusted to the agency STATES, in spite of his links with the family Trudeau.

The conservative Pierre Poilievre had already passed last week a motion from the Finance committee to hold hearings on the subject. Among the list of guests included the minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, Bardish Chagger, and the clerk of the privy Council, Ian Shugart.

Since then, it has been revealed that the wife, the brother and mother of Mr. Trudeau received $ 300,000 for having participated in public events of the U.S. for a few years. One of the daughters of the minister of Finance, Bill Morneau, has delivered speeches at events while another is contractual to the organization.

Mr. Poilievre has called for Justin Trudeau and Bill Morneau are in response to questions from the committee since the controversy personally.

MESSRS. Trudeau and Morneau have admitted Monday that they had committed an error in deciding not to recuse themselves when their government has assigned to this charity a contract of $ 900 million to manage a program of grants to students who volunteer.

These public apologies have not been enough to convince the Bloc québécois and the New democratic Party, who have lent their voice to the conservatives in order to attempt to get to the bottom of the case in the parliamentary committee.

“We think that the more quickly the light will be made on it, the faster the canadian State will again begin to function as the world”, said the head bloquiste Yves-François Blanchet, who was in Ottawa Tuesday morning.

“All the people involved in this contract, shall respond to the questions, including the prime minister. Canadians expect answers and deserve answers,” said Peter Julian, the NDP critic on finance.

In parallel, the commissioner of conflict of interest and ethics will investigate, at the request of the conservatives and the NDP, in order to determine whether the prime minister has contravened the act when the federal government has chosen the agency UNITED to manage the volunteer program student.

“We think that the more quickly the light will be made on it, the faster the canadian State will again begin to function as the world ”

—
The chief bloquiste Yves-François Blanchet

The Block, as he has done for the past several days, that Mr. Trudeau is giving up her place as prime minister, the time for the commissioner to shed light on this matter. The office of the latter said on social networks that the average time for an investigation is around seven months.

“I think that Mr. Trudeau can tune it faster than that by giving us all of the information, especially during his or her appearances in one or several committees. It is up to him. If he has not done anything questionable, (…) I would therefore like to make the light as soon as possible,” replied Mr. Blanchet.

The Finance committee shall meet on a Thursday afternoon. The list of witnesses has not yet been announced.

Canada summer jobs

The opposition parties have also been wondering why the Trudeau government has created a program of $ 900 million to help students to do volunteer work instead of granting money to an already existing program – Canada summer Jobs.

“It makes no sense. They put a ton of money – 912 million $ – to a whole new concept then they had a program key in hand”, was criticized by Dan Albas, a spokesperson for the conservative Party in terms of economic development.

The liberals have already injected $ 60 million into the Canada summer Jobs to create 10 000 more jobs for young people 15 to 30 years. This new funding has made it possible to increase the total program budget to $ 323 million, and the goal of jobs to 80,000.

Neither the government nor STATES has said how volunteers will be recruited with the program of more than $ 900 million. The program has also faced his share of criticism.

Participants in the program would earn the equivalent of $ 10 per hour, which is less than the minimum wage in all provinces. Participants could be granted scholarships of up to $ 5,000 by volunteering for a maximum of 500 hours.

There have also been questions about the positions available within the scheme is managed by STATES. Students were required to film videos, create web sites and make the “content creation” to meet the criteria of the volunteer program.

Mr. Albas and the spokesperson for the NDP on matters of ethics, Charlie Angus, have argued that all of this came in contradiction with the summer employment program. The government had asked mps across the country to identify jobs in their respective constituencies. Several organizations have not received funding.

“We had legitimate organizations ready to hire students to do legitimate work, and all of this has been ruled out,” said Mr. Angus. It was posts much more credible than create videos that explain how to do exercises.”

The liberals have indicated that they plan to go forward with the volunteer program, despite the decision of STATES and government to put an end to the agreement on 3 July. The federal ministry of Employment and social Development has since taken over the management of the program.

The conservatives, new democrats and greens all say that the government should learn from its mistakes and put money in the program, Canada summer Jobs, which is already managed by the government and that works well.

The parliamentary chief of the green Party, Elizabeth May, said that organizations that have already applied for positions through the volunteer program, student should be able to transfer their applications to the summer program.

Le Soleil