Thank you, Mr. Chair, for allowing me the opportunity to speak.
I am not a regular on this committee, as many of you probably know. This is my first time on this committee.
I'm happy to get the opportunity to speak, mainly because I do have first-hand experience with the WE organization as a former high school teacher in Montreal. Many of the teachers who worked with me were engaged with projects with the WE organization that benefited some of the students at my school.
I know my school is only one very small example, compared to the amount of amazing work this organization does across Canada. I know there are over 400 schools just in the province of Quebec that actually benefited from WE and worked directly with WE on student leadership to basically help their students get amazing experiences doing important work across the world.
I'm sure it obviously wasn't the intention of the opposition or of the committee, but the amazing work that has been done through this organization over the last decade has been undermined and ridiculed a little bit through the current discussions that have been taking place. Unfortunately for the organization, it's been quite damaging to them. I think that's extremely unfortunate, because they do exceptional work.
I do believe that in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic that we're currently living in, many of the programs that the Government of Canada has put out have been done in a very quick manner in order to bring help as quickly as possible to Canadians. We know many Canadians have been ill. Most Canadians have been impacted by COVID-19 in some way or another.
Youth have been particularly impacted. A lot of young people I speak to don't know what the future holds for them and don't know what types of work experiences they'll be able to get in the near future. They're finishing university and obviously investing in their education right now, because they see it as a perfect opportunity to do so, considering that they're staying home and they don't see an end to this thing. However, the Canada student service grant would have been a great opportunity for many students across Canada to get these extra experiences and to get something on their CV that looks great and prepares them for a job in the future, when finally we get out of this crisis and the economy gets back on its feet.
I just wanted to point out that it's unfortunate that this is what's going on right now with this organization and to talk about my experience. I know there are many young people who were looking forward to this experience. Unfortunately, this year opportunities were taken away from thousands of young Canadians because of what happened and what's transpired in the last couple of months.
I'm really hoping that in the coming year, whatever program gets brought out actually does benefit the kids and the students who could benefit.
Another point I wanted to make is about Baylis Medical Company, a company in my riding, which has a great reputation here in Saint-Laurent. Another company in my riding that received funds to create ventilators was CAE. The riding of Saint-Laurent happens to be an industrial hub here in Quebec.
I was quite happy that a lot of the businesses in the riding did get these types of contracts, because obviously Canadians needed to feel that ventilators would be accessible if ever the second wave were to come and if they finally would need a hospital and extra help because of the virus, whose full effects we don't yet know. Also, we don't know where the second wave of the virus will bring us. We don't know how many Canadians are going to eventually need to end up on a ventilator.
Obviously it was important for the government to take the necessary precautions and steps to ensure that Canadians would be safe for the long term and that we would be able to offer enough medical equipment to as many Canadians as need be.
Again, as my colleague Mr. Dong mentioned during his presentation and in what he was mentioning earlier, the contract was not given directly to Baylis Medical. They were subcontracted, just as other companies are. We know that in the grand scheme of things, companies never work independently to do these things. There are always many companies that come into play when producing any type of equipment. A company is never in it alone, right? They need supplies from different types of companies.
It's only normal that one of the companies would be the one with the good reputation—the Baylis Medical company. It could have been any medical company. I think the reason we're looking into this is that the Baylis company is obviously related to Frank Baylis, a previous member of Parliament who was sitting here in the House of Commons. I definitely don't think.... We would have probably turned a blind eye to it if the company name were different or if it wasn't something that was completely related to a past member.
As was mentioned, I remember, in the House of Commons, one of the contracts, specifically one affiliated with Baylis Medical, was a contract that a known Conservative supporter received from the federal government, so it's not a partisan issue in this particular case. It's really about making sure that the companies that have the tools necessary to give us the equipment we need in the coming months, which we may very well need even more than we've prepared for—we don't know yet—get the contracts that we offer, because we need to make sure that we're protecting as many Canadians as possible.
Those are the points I wanted to flag.
I know that this committee has been sitting for quite a while—many, many hours—and I did not hear all of the arguments, because this is the first hour that I'm sitting on this committee. I definitely don't know what was previously stated, but I do, however, really want to bring in my experience as a teacher, because I know many people who have directly benefited from WE. I think it's very unfortunate right now for so many students and young people that I technically feel I represent, because as one of the youngest MPs in the Canadian Parliament, I definitely feel that it's my responsibility to be their voice and to represent them. I definitely feel that they were robbed of an opportunity because of how things transpired, and I definitely don't see how this study would help that in the future.
I would like for us to come up with new ways to support young people and to create opportunities for them that they will benefit from in the long term. I don't necessarily see how doing this type of study on the committee would help us get there faster. If anything, I think that maybe a lot of the supports we're giving may come to a halt if we were to continue going ahead. I wouldn't want to see that.
I'm really hoping that these points are taken into account when you're making a final decision. Thank you.