Former Liberal MP to be questioned by ethics committee over $237 million contract

Former Liberal Party MP Frank Baylis, who has been the topic of controversy in Parliament after his medical firm was given a $237 million contract without calls for bids, is being summoned back to Parliament Hill to serve as a witness at the Commons ethics committee hearings on federal contracting, according to Blacklock's Reporter.

"We will be reaching out to Frank Baylis," said Conservative MP David Sweet.

The Commons ethics committee voted to review "all aspects of the government’s involvement with Baylis Medical Company Inc. as well as former Liberal Member of Parliament Frank Baylis, including the awarding of a procurement contract for medical devices" on November 13.

The motion was sponsored by NDP MP Charlie Angus, after heavy criticism that the Trudeau Liberals were spending at an unprecedented rate.

Contracts given to Baylis' company also include $273,237 towards the medical contract itself, with an additional $422,946 "research contract" with the Department of Industry, totalling $696,183 in taxpayer dollars.

"The government needs to be on notice that the money they’re spending in a pandemic is an unprecedented amount of money," said NDP MP Charlie Angus in September.

"The money has to go out the door fast, but it has to follow the rules so Canadians' interests are put first, and not just people who know people in the government, not just in the power of the lobbyists."

Angus continued: "Prior to the WE Scandal, Canadians had a real sense of trust, that we were in an unprecedented economic and medical crisis, the government is there to work for us, we put our confidence in them, and then we saw the WE Scandal... People said, wait a minute: A group that close to the Prime Minister’s Office was given that much money? How did that happen?"

"It raises questions about other contracts," Angus concluded.