The federal Conservative party is restating their demand for Finance Minister Bill Morneau to resign after he revealed that he had just paid WE Charity back $41,366 in outstanding expenses that the organization covered for two trips his family took in 2017.
The admission of the paid trips, and that his wife has made $100,000 in donations to the organization in recent years, came at a parliamentary committee on Wednesday, amid the ongoing study into the possible conflict of interest breach over granting WE Charity a deal to administer a $912-million student grant program that would have seen the organization receive up to $43.5 million.
In a statement sent late Wednesday night, WE Charity said that, “from time to time on a complimentary basis,” the organization has invited donors and potential big donors to see its work firsthand, and the trips were offered to Morneau’s family in part because they are “known philanthropists with a history of significant donations.”
Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion is already investigating Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over their potential conflicts being in the room when the decisions were being made to award WE Charity this massive summer student volunteer initiative, despite their close family connections. The latest admissions are likely to widen and contribute to Dion’s investigation, and the Conservatives have now written to him again to ask for that to be the case.
Trudeau and his top aide Chief of Staff Katie Telford are also set to testify before the committee at a yet-to-be-determined time.
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