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Two federal cabinet members have resigned on principle, but Saskatchewan’s only Liberal MP calls those moves “drastic.”
Ralph Goodale is standing in full confidence with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau amid the SNC-Lavalin scandal and the resignations of Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott.
The Regina MP does not share the same concerns as Wilson-Raybould and Philpott and disagrees with their interpretation of events.
“They are obviously speaking to a different experience and that’s why we’ve got to get to the bottom of this,” said Goodale.
The veteran MP said that, during his time in cabinet, he has not seen anything as a minister that would raise concerns like those expressed by his two former colleagues.
Wilson-Raybould told the House of Commons justice committee that she came under “consistent and sustained” pressure, including “veiled threats” to halt the criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.
Philpott’s resignation letter said: “The solemn principles at stake are the independence and integrity of our justice system.”
On Tuesday, Goodale assured that the government is taking the issue very seriously and that it needs to work hard to find the root cause of the former cabinet ministers’ concerns. He tells Canadians that they need to weigh all the testimony from the justice committee.
“There are factual dimensions here that need to be fully ventilated,” Goodale said. “As I’ve said, we’ve heard one side of the argument.”
Trudeau’s former senior aide, Gerald Butts, is set to testify in front of the justice committee on Wednesday morning. He requested the opportunity following Wilson-Raybould’s testimony.
Wilson-Raybould recounted a meeting with the prime minister in which he asked her to help find a solution for SNC-Lavalin. She said Trudeau told her if there was no Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA), there would be many jobs lost and SNC-Lavalin would move from Montreal.
The image of Quebec favouritism only added to the growing sentiment from Western Canadians about feeling ignored and misunderstood by Ottawa.
Goodale said that the issue is not geographically based and that every job across Canada is important. He explained the government has to work on all fronts to make sure that point is not just clearly understood but demonstrated.
“We’ve got a better job to do on the focus on Western Canada,” he said.
Goodale also claimed that if the Liberal government didn’t invest $4.5 billion on the Trans Mountain pipeline, there wouldn’t be any pipeline project to the west coast.
