Thank you. I won't take up the seven minutes, but I will deliver a few opening remarks.
I'll start in French and go into English.
Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members for inviting me to appear before the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics.
My name is Christiane Fox. I'm the deputy minister of Indigenous Services Canada. I used to be the deputy minister of intergovernmental affairs at the Privy Council Office.
I'll start by providing some context to describe my role in the WE charity youth proposal.
Prior to the last federal election, I was the deputy minister of intergovernmental affairs and youth. I supported the Prime Minister, in his capacity as minister of youth, on key youth files, including Canada's first ever youth policy and the Canada Service Corps program.
Following the election and the appointment of the cabinet, I remained responsible for intergovernmental affairs. However, the youth responsibilities were transferred to Canadian Heritage, as was the youth secretariat.
On April 20, I received a call from WE Charity, as they wanted to discuss their proposals for youth entrepreneurship and a youth service program, given my previous role as deputy minister of youth for the federal government. I agreed to share this proposal with colleagues in various departments and to provide them with feedback based on my experience with the Canada Service Corps.
I received their proposal on April 22. Over the coming days, I shared their proposal with officials and departments. However, I did want to flag with the committee members that I did not have conversations with political staff from the Prime Minister's Office or the Deputy Prime Minister's Office regarding this proposal.
During that week, I was also tracking the progress in the event we would need to share details with provinces and territories, something I did regularly on all COVID-19 support programs on our daily calls with provinces and territories. In the end, the only briefing that took place was on the overall students package announced on April 22.
My next interaction on this file occurred on May 21, when I was asked to join the briefing for the Prime Minister to provide him with insight based on my previous experience with ESDC's Canada service program. I shared at the briefing the following points for consideration. I noted that the single biggest challenge with the Canada Service Corps was ramping up the service opportunities, taking over a year to get to 1,800 opportunities across the country. In this context, I indicated that I did not think it would be feasible to create 20,000 opportunities in four months using the same program. I indicated that using an outside organization that was national in scope, with a strong digital platform and previous experience in youth engagement and service, could be a good option. I noted the importance of having bilingual opportunities. I indicated the focus that would be required to remove barriers to participation for under-represented youth. I indicated that any selected partner should work with other youth-serving agencies to maximize youth participation.
Following this briefing, I realized that I had not shared my feedback directly with WE Charity, as I had been solely focused on my work on the COVID response, working with provinces and territories and supporting the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister on the weekly meetings of first ministers and the regular bilateral engagement that took place with jurisdictions. Therefore, to make sure to convey what I felt were important considerations, on May 22 I spoke to WE Charity and shared my general thoughts on a potential youth service program, as I did at the briefing the previous day.
Mr. Chair, this is the extent of my involvement in this program. I'm happy to take questions from committee members.
Thank you.