Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to begin by commending the Ministry of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, as well as the public servants at ESDC and the Department of Canadian Heritage, for their work in designing the CSSG. This is truly an innovative program, and I can only imagine the considerable creativity and outside-of-the-box thinking by everyone who was involved in this.
At a time when charities are struggling like never before, a program like this is essential. The $900 million in student grants would have translated into roughly 90 million hours of volunteer work and would undeniably have helped charities close the front-line service gap that currently exists.
Additionally, the maximum of $43 million in administrative costs to compensate the WE Charity, if all $900 million had been distributed, would have represented less than 5% of the total program costs, which, in my opinion, would have been well within the norm of project management and administrative fees for such programs, especially given the tight timelines.
Minister Chagger, can you highlight the intentions and objectives of the CSSG? With over 35,000 applicants, how effective was the program in encouraging volunteerism at a time when so many charities and communities are struggling with donations, which are down by about 50%?