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Justin Trudeau’s finance minister acknowledged he accepted tens of hundreds of {dollars} in travel bills from the charity embroiled in a scandal over a scholar grants contract, fanning the controversy.
Bill Morneau, dealing with questions from lawmakers finding out the problem in Ottawa, apologized Wednesday for not repaying greater than C$41,000 ($31,000) to the WE Charity till now.
“This was a mistake on my behalf,” Morneau stated. “It is my mistake. It is a mistake that I regret. I apologize for that.”
The finance minister stated the C$41,366 in bills have been incurred when his household traveled to Kenya and Ecuador in 2017 with the non-profit group. Morneau additionally stated his household made two C$50,000 donations to WE, one in April 2018 to help work for college students in Canada and a second final month for Covid-19 aid efforts in Kenya.
Morneau stated he wasn’t conscious he had incurred the bills on the time, and solely realized the “error” after a current evaluation of the journeys.
Along with Trudeau, Morneau can also be underneath investigation by Canada’s ethics watchdog for doable battle of curiosity over the choice to award a contract price up C$43.5 million to WE for the administration of a C$900 million scholar grant program. Two of the finance minister’s daughters have ties to the group, together with one who at the moment works for the group.
Separately Wednesday, the prime minister’s workplace stated Trudeau has accepted an invite to testify earlier than the finance committee on the problem.
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