Prime Minister Trudeau regrets not removing himself from WE Charity contract discussion

OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted Friday he regrets how he handled the WE Charity contract.

He said he made a mistake by not recusing himself from the discussions about a sole-sourced, $900-million contract for a youth employment program that ended up going to the WE Charity — which has paid his mother and brother hundreds of thousands of dollars in event speaking fees.

“When I received the information on May 8, that the public service was recommending WE Charity to deliver this program, I pushed back. I said, ‘Let’s make sure that, indeed, this is the only organization that can deliver this program, that everything about this program is tightly buckled down, that we know exactly that it’s the right program, that the public service is absolutely confident that this is the only way to go forward with this program,'” he added.

“As we know now, and as I look back in hindsight, it would have been better, instead of pushing back and asking extra verification, if I had simply removed myself entirely from the discussion. I regret not having removed myself from the discussion.”

Trudeau still believes the decision to award the contract to WE — which has since pulled out of it — was done for the right reasons.

“But pushing on making sure it was the right program, was something that was done for the right reasons and in the right way,” he said.

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“The extra due diligence I asked for was about really being able to stand in front of Canadians and in front of critiques from the Opposition that were undoubtedly to come because of this program’s links to the to me and to a number of members of my government, that this was the right recommendation, made independently of any of those issues. The due diligence I put pushed on was in order to make sure that this was, indeed, the right program, the only way to be able to move forward with the program.”

Trudeau also regrets how the situation has affected the charity and youth.

“The challenges that have followed for the WE organization and, indeed, the questions that have been asked of this government have been disappointing because it gets in the way of the help we focussed on doing for young people.”

Trudeau testified Thursday before the House of Commons finance committee for his part in the WE issue.

He has been asked about what due diligence he requested, which made him confident he didn’t need to recuse himself from the awarding of the contract to the WE Charity, to help summer students, many unable to work because of COVID-19.

“My ask of the public servants and of the minister was to absolutely make sure that what they were suggesting was the hard and cold truth — that there was no other organization that could deliver this program, that the delivery of this program was going to be successful, that this was the right organization for it,” he said.

“And when the answers came back that, yes, indeed it is absolutely the only program that could do it, I allowed it to go to cabinet for an up-or-down decision, either we have this summer grant program through WE organization or we do not have a summer grant program at all.”

Regarding family members, Trudeau said the ethics commissioner had already cleared his wife for working in an unpaid basis with the WE organization through a podcast and through events, where the charity covered her travel-related expenses.

“But did not pay her. That was already pre-cleared by the ethics commissioner,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau also defended Finance Minister Bill Morneau over conflict-of-interest issues related to the WE Charity agreement. Trudeau said Morneau has apologized for accepting WE-sponsored travel for himself and his family, but adds that many people use personal trips to help make a difference.