Evidence of meeting #45 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was sir.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Okay, I'll stop you there because I want to get clarification on a couple of things.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Okay.
Michelle Douglas appeared just before you. She's a former chair of the board, as you know. She stated that she didn't know speakers received fees for speaking at WE events. Why would she not know that?
Founder, WE Charity
Thank you for asking, sir.
So, we actually.... Again, allow me to reiterate this very important point.
We believe that, in speaking on the WE Day stage, it is an honour and a privilege to address 10,000 or 20,000 young people at a time to share your story. It's typically two, three, four or five minutes max on the stage, and it's not a hard thing to get people who want to speak in front of 20,000. The challenge or difficulty is having someone come into a city to do multiple educator events, multiple breakfasts, fundraisers, cocktail parties, evening events and gala events.
Just like other charities, we engage through a speaking bureau with the proper processes in place, someone to help us find the talent to engage in those types of activities. We don't do telemarketing. We don't do street canvassing. We don't do mass mailing. We don't do fundraising of that nature, but bringing in these type of educational speakers to events allows us to bring partners and sponsors to the table. This is part of our model, and it works really well.
To clarify, again, this is not just to get up on the stage on WE Day, as per Ms. Douglas's comments. This is for a different purpose; it supports the organization's mission.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Okay. Thank you for that.
I'm just going to ask for a point of clarification, if I could.
What you're saying, then, is that the individual is not really paid for the WE Day event. They're paid for the other events auxiliary to that. Is that correct?
Founder, WE Charity
Yes, sir.
The contract is, of course, with WE Day. It's the easiest way to make the contract, but the purpose of their compensation is for them to come and help us with the auxiliary events, because that's less exciting, and lots of days. That's the understanding that we had with these individuals, sir.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you.
Mr. Fortin, hopefully your Internet is working this time. The floor is yours for two and a half minutes. We're into those rounds again.
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Kielburger, I apologize to you too for the inconveniences of technology. I will pick up where I left off.
Mr. Chair, you are signalling to me. Can you hear me?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
No, you're coming through in both languages at the same time.
Are you on the French?
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
I am sorry, Mr. Chair. From now on I will be on the French channel.
Mr. Kielburger, you hired Margaret Sinclair Trudeau because she is former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau's ex-wife and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's mother. You hired the current Prime Minister's brother, Alexandre Trudeau, and the Prime Minister's wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, all for speaking engagements.
Mr. Morneau and his wife went on vacation with you. Their daughters work for you. There are all these connections. As a matter of fact, you yourself said earlier that, while delivering a speech, you mistakenly mentioned that you had spoken with the Prime Minister's Office.
I sense that you have a very close relationship with the Trudeau family and the Morneau family. Do you acknowledge that you have very close ties with the Trudeau family and the Morneau family?
Founder, WE Charity
Sir, I will answer the question this way. I've never seen the Prime Minister or Sophie Grégoire Trudeau in a social setting. Neither of us have. We have never had a meal with them. We've never socialized with them, ever. So it depends what your definition of “close” is.
We have welcomed Sophie Grégoire Trudeau to be the ambassador for our mental health programs, and she has been extraordinary in raising awareness. We have welcomed Margaret Trudeau, because she is a mental health advocate.
In the case of the Morneau family, the McCain-Morneau family are a very generous philanthropists. We've hosted them on humanitarian trips. All of this is in furtherance to the cause.
Sir, again, what we're doing here is fulfilling the purpose of our charity, and that is different from a personal relationship.
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
I am not criticizing that, Mr. Kielburger.
I understand that very well and, if I had been in your position, I might have done the same. On one point, though, we probably would not have done the same.
Now that we have said all that, how can you explain that neither yourself nor the person responsible for government relations at WE Charity ever registered in the Registry of Lobbyists, although you have these connections? We are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts you receive from the government. The latest contract we are talking about these days was to allow you to manage a total of close to $900 million or more. You were paid about $43 million to do it.
Considering that the relationship was that close, why didn't you ever think of registering as a lobbyist?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Mr. Fortin, I don't know what is wrong with your Internet system, but it is down again. It isn't your mike. I understand that it's the Internet system.
Did you pick up enough of that question, either Marc or Craig, to answer? Perhaps you could answer that, and then we'll go to Mr. Julian.
Founder, WE Charity
Yes. Allow us to answer your question, sir.
First, and I say this with great respect, Margaret Trudeau is more than someone's mother. Sophie Grégoire Trudeau is more than someone's wife. We live and we engage with individuals on the merit that they also bring themselves, as individuals, to these important causes. I feel that I need to correct the record on that, sir.
To the heart of your question, why we didn't register, it's because, based on our understanding of the time definition involved, in the vast majority of these cases—what we're describing, in fact everything until last month, or two months ago I should say—this was a minimal amount of time to fill out a government application for a grant. We recognize that when we were approached by ESDC in the month of April the amount of time increased. Frankly, we're working with our team to determine whether that should have triggered us to register.
We're happy to look into that question, sir, for the month of April, when the government proactively approached us. Honestly, sir, we didn't think at that point that something was necessary, because they were calling us to be helpful to them. We're looking into the matter. We're happy to look further into the matter.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Mr. Fortin, you are breaking up. We can't hear you, and you're over time.
Mr. Julian—