'We know that this is illegal': MP Pierre Poilievre grills Finance Minister Bill Morneau

Finance Minister Bill Morneau was put on the hot seat several times by Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre. This is an edited version of one of their exchanges.

*Poilievre:* Just to recap where we are. You and the prime minister gave $912 million to the real estate holding arm of a group that had paid the prime minister’s family $300,000, and gave your daughter a job and your family $41,000 in illegal travel expenses. That’s just what we know so far. We know that this is illegal (under the Conflict of Interest Act). You have only admitted now that you did that the same day you are called to testify under oath in the matter, over a year after the gifts were accepted. You are a minister who has already been found guilty of violating the Conflict of Interest Act when you failed to reveal the existence of your villa in France. Minister, you have lost the moral authority to hold your office and it is the position of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition that you resign. Will you resign?

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*Morneau:* I want to make it clear that there were in fact mistakes made here. I have said quite clearly that in hindsight I should have recused myself from this decision when it came to Cabinet. I did not know that there were expenses that had not been charged to me in that travel. But I’m not making an excuse. It was my mistake not to have taken responsibility to ensure those expenses were paid. I found that out only with a thorough review of my records over the course of the last few days. That is absolutely a mistake on my behalf. I have then turned around to reimburse (the WE company).

*Poilievre:* Canadians will find it impossible to believe that this organization showered you with $41,000 worth of luxury and accommodations and you didn’t know about it, that somehow you were enjoying all of these benefits and expenses paid for while you were on an exotic vacation to Ecuador and that somehow you didn’t even know that the expenses occurred? Who did you think was paying for all of the wine and the food and the luxury travel that you were consuming? Did you think it was just falling out of the sky?

*Morneau:* As I’ve said, we did go back and look at our records and found the travel and hotel costs but we didn’t find any charges to us from the WE facilities. This should have been something that we rectified sooner. It was absolutely in error. In looking through my records I was completely surprised at the situation and that’s not an excuse that’s just what happened. That is no excuse, it’s just a mistake.