OTTAWA -- The Opposition Conservatives accused the Liberal government of either corruption or ignorance Monday as they pressed for more answers around a decision to hand control over a major student grant program to an organization with longtime ties to the Trudeau family.
The House of Commons was sitting to pass a new bill to extend the wage subsidy program, send a special COVID-19 top-up to some people with disabilities and to extend legal deadlines for court cases.
While those measures were expected to pass with the support of all opposition parties, the same collegial spirit did not extend to question period.
There, the dominant line of inquiry was around the Liberal government's decision to award WE Charity the responsibility for a $900 million student job program.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's mother, in particular, has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for participating in WE events, and Finance Minister Bill Morneau's daughter works for an arm of the WE organization.
The organization has handed the program back to the government and both Trudeau and Morneau have said they should have recused themselves from the decision.
But the international development and youth empowerment group is now under scrutiny for its internal practices, adding further fuel to the opposition's charges that the decision to grant the contract to WE was suspect.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer pointed Monday to a report by Canadaland that red flags had been raised in 2018 by auditors reviewing WE's financials, as well as the fact that their board had undergone a major shakeup earlier in the year as evidence the Liberals had not done their due diligence in deciding to sign off on the contract.
"Either the Liberals were aware of these issues and still approved the decision or they were incompetent," he said.
"It's either corruption or incompetence, which is it?"
It is neither, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland replied repeatedly, nearly reading verbatim from a sheet of paper with the Liberals' current top-line talking point on the issue: that the idea of having WE run the Canada Student Services Grant was brought forward by the non-partisan public service.
"The way this unfolded was regrettable and the charity will not longer be administering the project," she said.
The House of Commons had been recalled to pass the latest suite of COVID-19 measures.
The Liberals are seeking to extend the wage subsidy program to December and have its criteria loosened a little, so business can reopen and employ workers, even if trade is slow at first as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
The original program covered 75 per cent of wages, up to a weekly maximum of $847, for eligible companies and non-profits. Companies had to show a 30 per cent drop in revenues.
The proposed changes will see the program pay on a sliding scale based on revenue drops due to the pandemic, with the hardest-hit businesses eligible for a 25 per cent increase to the previous maximum payment.
The Tories said the new approach is too convoluted.
"We have major concerns around the wage subsidy, we've highlighted ideas to make it simpler," Scheer said ahead of the Commons sitting.
"You need a degree in mathematics to fully understand all the permutations and combinations they've come up with."
Since the Bloc Quebecois has said its MPs will support the bill, the Liberals have the majority of votes required to ensure it passes the Commons.
Scheer said the Tories do support the elements of the bill that grant up to $600 for people with disabilities and allows the court extensions and don't want to hold those up.
But all parties have now agreed to turn what was supposed to be a one-day sitting to pass the bill into two days to allow for more time to debate the measures.
That could also open up an opportunity for the Conservatives to do something else they were hoping to achieve Monday, but couldn't -- press the prime minister himself.
Trudeau did not show up for the sitting Monday, his itinerary listing him as taking a personal day.
Scheer suggested Trudeau was deliberately ducking any questions on the ongoing controversy around his personal connections to WE.
"(Trudeau) picked today to come back to debate this bill and also to participate in question period, then he decided to take a personal day," Scheer said.
"Well, it's completely unacceptable that he doesn't show up for work on the day that he chose, it's an insult to Canadians who have very serious questions about the WE scandal and who still are suffering because of the gaps in Mr. Trudeau's programs."
Trudeau is expected to be in the Commons on Tuesday, as well as for the special COVID-19 committee of MPs that is scheduled to meet Wednesday.
A lingering question is whether Trudeau will also appear at the House of Commons finance committee, where MPs want to grill him on the WE issue.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2020.
