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Aug 10, 2020 3:43 PM -

Opposition MPs question decision to manage rent assistance aid program to M-CAP

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears as a witness via videoconference during a House of Commons finance committee in the Wellington Building on Thursday, July 30, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Opposition MPs on the Commons finance committee want to know more about an agreement between Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and a company where the husband of the prime minister's chief of staff works.

Katie Telford's husband Rob Silver is an executive vice-president at M-CAP, which the government tapped to administer a rent-assistance program for small businesses affected by COVID-19.

The Prime Minister's Office says Telford established clear ethical walls between herself and M-CAP back in January.

CMHC says it didn't have the internal capacity to quickly get the program running and that it sought bids from two financial institutions and chose M-CAP because its proposal was stronger and cost less.

It's not clear when members of the Commons finance committee are going to get their hands on more than five-thousand pages of documents related to the WE controversy.

Lawyers are now vetting them for personal information and cabinet secrets.

Opposition MPs are hoping the documents will reveal whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's relationship with WE Charity influenced the government's decision to let it run a federal student-volunteer program.

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