Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the country won't know whether going with WE Charity to run the Canada Student Service Grant program was the right decision.
He says that's because the organization backed out of running the volunteer program.
Trudeau is seemingly taking the blame for that decision, by saying the outcome partly resulted from his taking part in discussions despite his family's involvement with WE.
Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett asks Trudeau which cabinet minister he plans to fire over the WE controversy, prompting the prime minister to say he has confidence in his cabinet.
Trudeau says it was the public service that made the decision to go with WE and he was not involved in that.
Trudeau says students volunteering this summer won't be getting any payments or recognition for those hours this summer.
His comments at the House of Commons finance committee suggest the student-volunteer program is effectively dead.
The prime minister says his government will look at other ways to support and increase young people volunteering across the country.
Trudeau didn't say what happens to the $912 million budgeted for the program, which officials expected to actually cost $543 million in grants and an administration fee to the WE organization.
Trudeau says he should have recused himself from cabinet discussions about the Canada Student Service Grant.
Trudeau says he was aware of some of Finance Minister Bill Morneau's familial ties to WE, but not that he travelled with WE or that one of his daughters worked for the organization.
The federal ethics commissioner is investigation Morneau for not recusing himself during discussions about the charity's involvement with the student program, as well as $41,000 in WE-sponsored travel expenses for family trips in 2017 that the finance minister paid back last week.