Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will face the parliamentary finance committee as it continues its probe into the WE Charity scandal plaguing his minority government.
The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed on Wednesday that Trudeau has agreed to attend at a date that is still undetermined.
He has faced pressure from both the Conservatives and NDP to agree to face committee questions about the decision to grant the controversial charity a contract to administer a $900-million student grant program.
READ MORE: Morneau says he’s made ‘significant’ WE Charity donations, just repaid $41K for trips
The decision comes roughly one hour after Finance Minister Bill Morneau admitted to the finance committee that he on Wednesday repaid more than $41,000 in unpaid travel expenses from two family trips to visit WE Charity facilities in Kenya and Ecuador.
Morneau also admitted that he and his wife Nancy McCain have made “significant donations” to the WE Charity twice, with each worth roughly $50,000.
Both Morneau and Trudeau are the subjects of an investigation by the federal ethics commissioner over the deal and their failures to recuse themselves from discussions on the matter.
The WE Charity has paid Trudeau’s family members hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees while Morneau’s two daughters both have close ties to the organization.
Both have apologized and said the matter was a mistake.
However, this investigation marks the third ethics probe of Trudeau’s behaviour specifically, following previous investigations into the SNC-Lavalin affair and a vacation his family took on the Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas.
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