Finance Committee on July 28th, 2020

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Marc Kielburger]

I wish Madam Krause and others also shared some of that advice, but we're doing our best—

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Chair, if I can just finish off my 10 seconds, I understand the Kielburgers are from the Thornhill part of York region, which is a neighbouring...next to my riding, I believe, in another MP's riding.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

I think you're out of time, Mr. Sorbara.

We're moving on to Mr. Barrett, and then Ms. Dzerowicz.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Your organization began working on the program weeks before the official announcement, and before it was even approved by cabinet. Yesterday, the Toronto Star said that you began incurring eligible expenses on May 5. It seems pretty risky. What grounds did you have to do this? What assurances did you have from the Government of Canada about spending money before the program was approved?

[Marc Kielburger]

Sir, we really wanted to help. We understood that the circumstances necessitated us to put up our hand as quickly as possible.

The dates of the program launch shifted many times. This was originally supposed to be early June, and then, of course, it ended up being the end of June. We were given no formal assurances, so we took the risk itself, because, simply, sir, we wanted to be ready for helping the students.

[Craig Kielburger]

That, and we run a charity; this is what we do. Our whole mission for 25 years has been service to young people, so we were willing to take this risk in service to young people.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Right.

A few times, you've said that the government reached out to you. Ms. Kovacevic testified and said this:

The next day, April 20, my minister's office connected with WE Charity to discuss their ability to deliver volunteer opportunities. The records of this call from my minister's office note that WE Charity will rework their 10-week summer program proposal to fully meet the policy objective of national service, and increase their current placements of 8,000 to double.

So it sounds like there was a proposal made and the government reworked that with you. It wasn't that they proactively reached out to you. You, in fact, initiated first contact with the government.

[Craig Kielburger]

I'm glad you asked this. Thank you.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

You're welcome.

[Craig Kielburger]

We had a proposal of social entrepreneurship. The target audience was youth out of school. It was going to be a year-long program. It was linking them with corporate Canada to be mentors, and the purpose was to help them launch businesses. In short, this had nothing—in any similar manner, besides the fact that it was youth—to do with the CSSG.

[Marc Kielburger]

And the monetary amounts...?

[Craig Kielburger]

Oh, it was between $8 million and $14 million, in total, for the full 12 months.

So this was a very.... This was not an iterative approach; it was not an evolutionary approach. These were two completely separate proposals.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

How many variations of those proposals did you submit to the government? How many variations of any proposal did you submit to the government after March 1 this year?

[Craig Kielburger]

We submitted one on youth employment, that youth entrepreneurship one. There were no iterations on it. Sadly, it did not go anywhere.

We submitted one on the early ask, the one that Rachel Wernick asked us to submit. She asked me on the 19th; we submitted that on the 22nd. Then, we worked with ESDC through multiple iterations. They weren't proposed; there were no formal submissions, just multiple iterations.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Would you be prepared to provide those proposals to the committee?

[Craig Kielburger]

[Inaudible--Editor]. It will clear up a lot of questions.

[Marc Kielburger]

Including.... One of the areas we would like to clear up formally is this whole concept of $10 an hour for volunteer service. We were very much concerned about that. We voiced that concern multiple times, sir, as an example—

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

We'll look forward to reading that in your submission—

[Marc Kielburger]

Mr. Chair, just one moment, please.

We felt that it did need to be minimum wage. These are some of the pieces that we felt very passionate about as part of this process, but we were working with what was asked of us.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

To which ministers or ministerial offices did your organization send proposals of any kind after March 1?

[Craig Kielburger]

It was the same three your colleague asked me about: Minister Ng, Minister Chagger, Minister Morneau. The first proposal was sent to Minister Ng on the 9th, and forwarded to those other two individuals. The second was sent on the 22nd—that was the Rachel Wernick ask—to those three ministers.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Ms. Dzerowicz, go ahead.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Mr. Chair, have the Conservatives run out of questions? They're starting to repeat multiple times. Mr. Poilievre repeated a number of Mr. Morantz's questions, and now Mr. Barrett has repeated a number of the previous Conservative questions. Have they run out of questions?