Evidence of meeting #24 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Thank you.
Mr. Poilievre, we'll let you finish that question and get an answer from the Kielburgers. Then we'll move on to the next questioner.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
It's just the total amount that the WE organizations and its affiliates paid in transportation fees, accommodations and any other expenses related to Ms. Sophie Grégoire's attendance at the WE event in March 2020 in London—just the amount, please, for that event.
Founder, WE Charity
I don't have that, but we'll get it for you.
I want to clarify that we previously gave FINA the total amounts—
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
It was just the total, not the itemized. You have not given the itemized amounts. I know that you don't want it to be public how much you paid for her accommodations and for that sumptuous travel right before you sought government funding from her husband.
My next question is this: Is there another family you paid over $400,000 in fees and expenses to, other than the Trudeaus?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Mr. Poilievre, we are out of time now.
We'll turn to Mr. Kielburger—
Conservative
Founder, WE Charity
For over 25 years we've engaged dozens of speakers, and so that dollar amount would not be out of the norm for our most frequent speakers.
Founder, WE Charity
Oh, I'm not going to name those names. There are speakers who have come to multiple events, who have done multiple fundraisers, in excess of 40 events, as they did in fundraisers and awareness raisers for us. We have absolutely paid, because we don't do telemarketers. We don't do street canvassers. This is how we raise funds—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Thank you, Mr. Poilievre.
We'll turn to Mr. Erskine-Smith, who is splitting his time with Mr. Dong.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Thanks very much.
I appreciate your time here.
I'm wondering, because I know you said you wanted to get to the [Technical difficulty—Editor] and Reed Cowan's concerns, and I appreciate that. How were you able to confirm that the plaques had, in fact, been removed? Who on the ground confirmed that to you?
Founder, WE Charity
I'm sorry, but would you repeat the question, please?
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Yes. You've confirmed that Reed Cowan's plaque was removed. You confirmed that it happened in one other instance.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
How did you confirm that? Who on the ground...? I don't need a name. What was the position of the individual who confirmed that to you?
Founder, WE Charity
One of the locals [Technical difficulty—Editor] a bike and drove out to the school and took a look to make sure that...and found that the plaque wasn't there. That was a serious issue, yes.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
You were aware that the plaque for Reed Cowan was associated with that particular school.
Founder, WE Charity
Correct. We apologized for this.
In full transparency, in that same village we had found out that around that same time there was a second plaque, that we know of. That's why we're doing a full investigation across the organization, but particularly in that time frame, to try to understand what went wrong.
We phased out plaques about 12 years ago. The local community doesn't want plaques in the schools. They are their schools. They pay. They maintain them. They continue after we hand them over to them. So we stopped doing plaques, again, about a dozen years ago. But we recognize that this is a very important issue. This is why we're trying to get into this.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
I suppose it's not just about the plaque per se. Yes, it's about the plaque and certain representations made to donors, but equally I would say that the concern stems from representations made to donors that their funding is going to a project and that you're not soliciting different funding for that same project.
I recognize what you say about boreholes being required. I recognize that there may be additional expenses that require additional funding.
Founder, WE Charity
May I respond to that? Is that possible, because I really—
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Yes, but before you do, I guess I'm seeking clarity—and I appreciate you are concerned about this—for how you are going to get to the bottom of this. Who is it you have tasked with getting to the bottom of this, and who is it on the ground who is going to get to the bottom of this for you?
Founder, WE Charity
I appreciate the question.
There are two quick things.
Number one, I feel that some people are maybe misunderstanding. Yes, we have funders who fund [Technical difficulty—Editor], but that's not just our model. We also have programs in schools for five, seven and sometimes 10 years—again, school lunches, teacher training, school supplies, programs for kids. All of that requires incremental funding. That's why people pool their funding into a village project. They pool it to support all these initiatives so that it can support the kids. It's not just building a building. An empty building does no good. You need all the other programs.
To answer your question, we have a standing committee of the board that has now been formed. Publicly, it is Gerry Connelly, the former director of education of the Toronto District School Board, who is going to lead the standing committee and who's looking at this issue both from Canada.... We also have a team in Kenya that is digging into this.
It will take a while. There are a lot of paper records from 15 years ago in Kenya, where we're trying to figure out the answer to this question. We are committed to finding out the answer to this question, because it is important.
I hear you, and we heard Mr. Cowan. Again, we are not perfect. But in 25 years, thousands of projects, 45 countries [Technical difficulty—Editor] water and health, we make mistakes. And we apologize for those mistakes.