Information & Ethics Committee on March 15th, 2021

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

On two separate occasions the Liberal vice-chair has tried to interrupt my testimony by falsely claiming that I was out of time even though I kept time and can show definitively that my time has not expired. I'd ask that I be granted the opportunity to get an answer to a very simple and straightforward question that the Kielburger brothers seem to have a lot of difficulty answering, which is this. What is the total value of all the cash and in-kind benefits that have been paid for fees or expenses to the Trudeau family, including Mr. Trudeau, his wife, his mother and his brother? It is a simple question. I've been trying to get an answer for two minutes, but have been regularly interrupted by the vice-chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

We'll allow for an answer. Then your time will be up, Mr. Poilievre, and we'll move on to the next questioner.

We'll give some time for the answer.

[Craig Kielburger]

Again, we never, of course, paid any expenses or honorariums to Mr. Trudeau, but to Margaret Trudeau, Alexandre Trudeau and Sophie Trudeau over the past, whatever, 10-plus years of various speaking events—

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Just the total, please. Get to it.

[Craig Kielburger]

Yes. Under the quickest math that I can here, adding it together, it's roughly $216,000 in honorariums and roughly $209,000 in expenses, which of course was not paid to them. We just pay it directly—the hotel or a flight. If you add that together it's a little over $400,000. That would have been all the expenses over the past decade for 42 different events where they attended and spoke on the stage.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

Thank you, Mr. Poilievre.

We're going to turn to Ms. Lattanzio.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, gentlemen, for being here today. I'm glad you were willing to come and testify before us today.

I'm also a member of the language committee, another standing committee. We had also discussed the program. We spoke a lot about the CSSG program there, too. The question there was on providing the program in both official languages, so I'd like to hear you today on the subject of hiring a firm, NATIONAL PR, to promote the program in Quebec and other francophone communities. Why did you bring on a firm to help deliver the program in French?

[Craig Kielburger]

The organization is fully bilingual. The speaking tours, the website and the programs are all bilingual. We have an office in Montreal to help students and engage schools in the province, but because the program was so large in scale and grew so quickly, we had to hire many groups to help us all over the country, even in Quebec.

We'll give you a little more information about our programs.

[Marc Kielburger]

Prior to this political situation, we had about 400 schools active in Quebec with us.

Prior to the CSSG, we had about 12 full-time staff in our Montreal office and about 16 when the program was launched; but we were asked to turn ourselves into a pretzel to help the government run this program as quickly as possible and, sincerely, we needed all the help we could get.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

There was talk that the office you had in Montreal was actually closed. Is that correct? Is that a [Technical difficulty—Editor]?

[Marc Kielburger]

[Technical difficulty—Editor] before the pandemic, and 16, of course, when the program began. The only thing that closed it was the politics.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Does the WE Charity frequently outsource work to other organizations for French initiatives?

[Marc Kielburger]

We worked with NATIONAL PR for years with our WE Days in Montreal—l’Organisme UNIS. We have had WE Days for many years, and NATIONAL PR was involved with those WE Days.

[Craig Kielburger]

To answer your question, we also engaged with English-language equivalent firms in other parts of Canada. It wasn't unusual for us.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

What would be the costs and fees associated with outsourcing translation or having bilingual staff or resources to have this program in either English or French, but more particularly in French in Quebec?

[Marc Kielburger]

It was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. We're happy to look into that.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Would you be able to provide us with that information?

[Marc Kielburger]

Absolutely. We're happy to provide an overview.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Okay.

[Technical difficulty—Editor] ask you about WE's ability to deliver the program in both official languages on the onset, were you asked that specific question?

[Marc Kielburger]

We were.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Can you tell us if any concerns were raised with respect to the ability to do so?

[Marc Kielburger]

No concerns were raised.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Okay. So you had already executed this type of work in the past.

[Marc Kielburger]

That's correct.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Can you give us some examples?