International Trade Minister Mary Ng says she believed that the sole-sourced contracts her office awarded to a friend in 2020 were in compliance with federal conflict of interest laws and that none of her staff ever raised concerns that the contracts might be unethical.
“I believed that we were acting in full compliance and that was my mistake,” Ng told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Ethics on Feb. 10.
“The ethics commissioner determined that it was my failure to recuse that resulted in his findings—not the contract amounts, not the use of a qualified professional firm, not the work itself, all of which was completed well and under severe timelines,” Ng said.
“That was the issue, and I accept his ruling,” she added.
Ng later told the committee that no one working in her office, including her chief of staff, ever raised concerns about the possibility of the contracts being in violation of the Conflict of Interest Act.
“It was not flagged,” Ng said, adding later, “We believed that we were in compliance.”
The minister was asked by members of the committee if she believes her violation of conflict of interest laws merits more than an apology.
“Do you think that your resignation is warranted in this case?” asked Conservative MP Michael Barrett.
Contracts
The contracts Ng’s office awarded to Pomp & Circumstance were worth over $22,000 in total, which Barrett said works out to around $2,000 per hour for the services the agency provided.“Your salary as a minister is about four times the average Canadian salary, and for that salary you used your position to further the interests of your best friend to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars,” Barrett said.
He asked Ng if she believes Canadian taxpayers should be reimbursed in some way for the contracts paid to Pomp & Circumstance.
“Do you think someone should pay the money back? You, or the vendor? You could split it,” he said.
“What Canadians can expect of me is that I will work hard on their behalf,” Ng said. “Including making life more affordable.”
