Evidence of meeting #41 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was volunteer.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Gina Wilson  Senior Associate Deputy Minister, Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, Department of Canadian Heritage
Clerk of the Committee  Ms. Caroline Bosc
Rachel Wernick  Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
Stephanie Hébert  Assistant Deputy Minister, Program Operations Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
Paula Speevak  President and Chief Executive Officer, Volunteer Canada

5:35 p.m.

Liberal

Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON

This is my last question, Mr. Chair.

Are calls for proposals issued for every contribution agreement?

5:35 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Program Operations Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development

Stephanie Hébert

Mr. Chair, I'm happy to take that question.

5:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter

Go ahead.

5:35 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Program Operations Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development

Stephanie Hébert

We don't issue a call for proposals for every single agreement. In the vast majority of agreements that we do manage, if they're annual calls and we're dealing with a high volume, such as in the particular instance of Canada summer jobs, we do a call for proposals. Members will also recall that in the context of Canada summer jobs this year, we also solicited proposals. We also invited members of Parliament to bring proposals forward to our attention, so that we could work with organizations who were delivering emergency community supports and critical services within their communities. I think that's an excellent example of where you have a call for proposals but where concurrently we also invited and solicited proposals from employers to assist us.

The last point I would make, Mr. Chair, is a point I made earlier. At the end of the day, we have to assess all proposals. The proposals must be eligible. The proposals must meet the terms and conditions of the program. The proposals that we ultimately fund and the agreements we enter into have to advance our program objectives.

Thank you.

5:35 p.m.

Liberal

Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON

Thank you very much.

5:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter

Thank you, all.

We will have to end it there. We're a little beyond our end time.

I believe there were a number of questions that we would expect some answers to in writing, for clarity. If people are monitoring from the department, there are some answers that we do need, I think, for clarity. I know that everything will be provided in the call for documents by August 8, but if there are some things you can provide related to today's discussion, that would be helpful.

5:35 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

Mr. Chair, can I say something for 10 seconds?

5:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter

We'll give you 12.

5:35 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

Okay. I just want to thank the officials because I remember what it was like in April. The workload was crushing. You were working seven days a week and I really appreciate your work.

5:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter

That's a very good point to make, Elizabeth.

I was going to say, in conclusion, that I know that as public servants you've been working extremely long hours during the COVID-19 pandemic, seven days a week, under a lot of pressure. We understand that. Public servants in all departments have done tremendous work for Canadians and the country, and we understand that.

I also understand that we've probably added to some of that pressure on you today, as a result of some decisions that got made somewhere. That's our right as parliamentarians to look further into those, as we will be doing. Nonetheless, I do know that everyone appreciates the work you've done for this country, and we certainly appreciate your appearing today and answering our questions at this committee. I know it's not easy, but we appreciate your appearing today.

5:35 p.m.

Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development

Rachel Wernick

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

5:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter

With that, we'll wish that you at least find a little time for a break this weekend if you can.

Thank you, all. We will suspend for two minutes and go to the next panel.

5:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter

We will again call the meeting to order and reconvene. Welcome to the third panel of meeting number 41 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance.

I know that the witness knows, but we are meeting on government spending, WE Charity and the Canada student service grant.

With that, we'll welcome our witness for this panel. We have about an hour.

Paula Speevak, president and CEO of Volunteer Canada, I expect that you have an opening statement. We'll go to that and then turn to questions. The floor is yours.

July 16th, 2020 / 5:40 p.m.

Paula Speevak President and Chief Executive Officer, Volunteer Canada

Thank you very much.

Hello, members of the finance committee. My name is Paula Speevak and I have the pleasure of serving as president and CEO of Volunteer Canada. Our organization is pleased to respond to your request to meet with you this afternoon and to answer your questions.

Volunteer Canada recognizes the support that has been provided to Canadians, businesses, non-profits and charitable organizations through the Government of Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our organization also appreciates efforts to provide financial support to students and others during these difficult times.

The issues that Volunteer Canada has raised about the Canada student service grant program were about the elements, scope and timing of the program, and not the process for selecting WE Charity or WE Charity itself. I will address these program issues after providing some brief background information.

For those unfamiliar with our organization, Volunteer Canada provides national leadership and expertise on volunteer engagement, in collaboration with more than 200 local volunteer centres, provincial and territorial associations, as well as corporate community engagement leaders, educational institutions and federal departments. This includes our past work with Public Safety Canada on issues related to screening volunteers working with vulnerable populations; Statistics Canada on the general social survey of giving, volunteering and participating; the CRA on the advisory committee on the charitable sector; and Employment and Social Development Canada on a range of topics, including youth engagement and the contributions of volunteers in achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals.

In the first three years of the Canada service corps, Volunteer Canada and volunteer centres created the pan-Canadian volunteer matching platform that provided a central place for youth to search, prior to the pandemic, an average of 73,000 volunteer opportunities from around the country. This work also involved the production of tools for youth to explore their passions, values and skills to identify transferable skills for their educational and career paths, and to reflect on critical social, economic and environmental issues. Both the platform and these tools are now publicly available on our website.

Many volunteer centres have taken on the role of mobilizing volunteers as part of the pandemic response. Several provincial and territorial systems were designated by their governments to serve this purpose, including Jebenevole.ca in Quebec, Volunteer Connector in Alberta, Volunteer Yukon, Volunteer Nova Scotia and many others. These COVID-19 volunteer opportunities are also accessible though our platform.

On April 24, two days after the Government of Canada’s announcement of the Canada student service grant program, Volunteer Canada got in touch with the office of the Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, as well as Canada service corps, to offer support and advice on the design of the program. Volunteer Canada mentioned the pan-Canadian volunteer matching platform and the youth engagement tools that had already been developed with government funding for Canada service corps that could be used for the program.

On April 27, Volunteer Canada had a meeting with senior staff of the Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth's office and expressed the following issues that Volunteer Canada and our stakeholders felt needed to be addressed for the program to meet its objectives.

The first issue was not equating the number of hours with the amount of financial support. Our organization had concerns about paying an hourly rate for community service that is below minimum wage, and calling this “volunteering”. This could create the wrong message about volunteering and potentially undermine volunteer engagement in the future.

The second issue was the importance of having a range of opportunities, not only COVID-19 direct response roles, in order to make the program accessible to a range of organizations and students.

Our third issue was the capacity of organizations to engage students and to carry out appropriate screening, including vulnerable sector checks, for those working with vulnerable populations.

The fourth issue is the current lack of available service opportunities and the potential pressure on organizations to create placements in order to support students.

The fifth issue was the importance of building on existing social infrastructure, as I mentioned earlier: community-based volunteer matching systems in local volunteer centres, and provincial and territorial associations connected to the pan-Canadian volunteer matching platform.

Between April 27 and May 19, Volunteer Canada initiated several calls with the minister's office to share our concerns and to get an update on the program. However, little information was available while the program approval was still pending.

On May 20, Volunteer Canada was contacted by WE Charity to explore our potential role in the Canada student service grant program. Between May 25 and June 3, we had four virtual meetings with WE Charity, during which Volunteer Canada expressed the five concerns I mentioned earlier and provided advice on creating a more comprehensive and flexible community learning program. Over the course of these meetings, we understood that the target grew from 20,000 students to 100,000 students. Our board and staff were clear that the service component of the program ought not to connect the number of hours served with the amount of the student's grant.

The “I Want to Help” program description provided to us on June 3 indicated that for every 100 hours of service, a student would be eligible for a grant of $1,000, essentially paying students $10 an hour. As I mentioned, of greatest concern to Volunteer Canada was the notion of paying people to volunteer or paying people below minimum wage.

On June 4, Volunteer Canada met virtually again with WE Charity about our concerns and learned that it was not possible to modify the scope of the program and these elements of the program, within the parameters of WE Charity's contribution agreement with ESDC.

On June 5, Volunteer Canada had a virtual meeting to let WE Charity know that we would not be working with them on the program.

On June 11, Volunteer Canada invited WE Charity to present the Canada student service grant program to local volunteer centres so that they could decide for themselves what their involvement might be. Volunteer Canada respects the autonomy of each organization to decide for themselves what is right for them and their communities.

Following the cancellation of the government's contract with WE Charity to administer the program, Volunteer Canada sent a message to the office of the Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth with some suggestions—not requesting any financial compensation or a role for Volunteer Canada.

Since the Canada student service grant program was announced at the end of April, our team has been inundated with calls and emails looking for information about the program and assuming that we were involved. On the day the program launched on June 26, we had 25,000-plus visits to our website. Volunteer Canada posted a link to the “I Want to Help” platform to assist those seeking information and indicating that Volunteer Canada was not involved.

In closing, Volunteer Canada's concerns were about the elements, scope and timing of the program, and not the selection process or the charity contracted to administer the program. To recap, our concerns were paying people to volunteer or paying people below minimum wage; the scope of the program focusing on pandemic response; the capacity of organizations to meaningfully engage students this summer; the lack of available opportunities; and the importance of building on existing infrastructure.

Volunteer Canada continues to work in collaboration with a network of more than 200 local volunteer centres, the corporate community engagement council, and not-for-profit and charitable organizations around the country to support volunteer engagement, especially during this time. We continue to be in awe of the local leadership of local volunteer centres, the many non-profit and charitable organizations, managers of volunteers and, of course, those who step forward to volunteer and those who stepped away to keep themselves safe.

Thank you very much.

5:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter

Thank you very much, Ms. Speevak, for that quite clear presentation.

The roundup for the first round will be, first, Mr. Cooper, and then Ms. Dzerowicz, Mr. Fortin and Mr. Julian.

We will have to go to five-minute turns because we're tight on time, in order to give the second panel enough time.

Mr. Cooper.

5:50 p.m.

Conservative

Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Speevak, you had indicated that Volunteer Canada contacted the Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth on April 24 and then had a number of conversations with the minister's office. I presume that at all times it was Volunteer Canada that initiated contact with the minister's office.

5:50 p.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Volunteer Canada

Paula Speevak

That's correct.

5:50 p.m.

Conservative

Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB

At no time did anyone from the minister's office, ESDC, the Prime Minister's Office or anyone in the civil service contact Volunteer Canada to ascertain their interest in administering or assisting with the program. Is that correct?

5:50 p.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Volunteer Canada

Paula Speevak

That is correct.

5:50 p.m.

Conservative

Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB

You indicated that from April 27 to May 19 Volunteer Canada initiated calls, but there was really very little information provided, radio silence. Is that fair?

5:50 p.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Volunteer Canada

Paula Speevak

I understood that the approval process for the framework was still pending and that it was not possible to make information public.

5:50 p.m.

Conservative

Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB

Volunteer Canada first came into contact with WE Charity on May 25. Is that right?

5:50 p.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Volunteer Canada

Paula Speevak

On May 20...yes.

5:50 p.m.

Conservative

Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB

It was May 20—sorry.

How did that come about?

5:50 p.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Volunteer Canada

Paula Speevak

WE Charity contacted us, wanting to explore the potential for us to serve as what they were calling a strategic partner for the program, and to explore a potential role.