'Today, I wrote a cheque in payment of $41,366,' Bill_Morneau told finance committee members
OTTAWA — Finance Minister Bill Morneau told the House of Commons finance committee that before his appearance Wednesday, he wrote a $41,000 cheque to repay the WE organization in three-year-old travel expenses.
Morneau’s two daughters have ties with the Toronto-based international charity. He said his daughter Clare has been an unpaid speaker at WE events, and his other daughter Grace is currently working on contract with the organization until the end of August. Morneau said he asked his assistant to reach out to WE on Tuesday, a day before his scheduled appearance before the committee, to find out how much of the expenses for those trips the organization had covered.
He said, in hindsight he should have recused himself in cabinet discussions related to the decision to tap WE Charity to administer a nearly $1-billion deal to administer a student volunteer program. “WE paid for your travel. That has the perception of attempting to buy political influence,” the Timmins–James Bay MP said. “You’re not thinking there’s a problem here, but they’re paying for influence. I think that that’s really, really concerning that you didn’t seem to think that that was a problem.”story that the federal government signed the $912-million contribution agreement with a holding company affiliated with WE, Morneau pointed to bureaucrats.
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