While being questioned by the House of Commons finance committe, Youth Minister Bardish Chagger says she didn’t talk to the anyone at the Prime Minister’s Office about the WE charity being involved and she didn’t talk to either the Prime Minister or Finance Minister Bill Morneau prior to cabinet approval.
She says public service made the recommendation in writing and suggested that WE was the only organization that could ramp up and run a student program that large.
The agreement, which has since been cancelled was to hand over in increments just over $43.5-million, but Chagger says the whole program is over $900-million.
Both the Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have ties to the charity through family, and both have apologized for not recusing themselves from the cabinet decision.