Evidence of meeting #51 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was youth.
A video is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Thank you.
To your knowledge, would other organizations with facilities in Quebec have been able to deliver the program in French in Quebec, aside from Katimavik?
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
I would be happy to provide you a list of the ones that I think have that specialization.
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Thank you, Mr. Cameron.
We would be grateful if you could provide us with this list.
You told us earlier that the management fees usually associated with a program are in the range of 10% to 20%.
This would vary greatly depending on the type of administration you need to do. Is that correct?
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
In this case, if you had to house students, pay for travel, meals and equipment, it would probably cost you a lot more than if your job was just to organize the structure. For example, if your job was just to tell one person that they would go to one place and another person that they would go to a different place, I would imagine that would be much less expensive in terms of administration costs. Is that correct?
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
If you were finding youth to attach to placements in the communities in which they lived, then of course, yes, there would not have been increased costs for housing.
Liberal
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
I have one last question for you, Mr. Cameron.
Are you familiar with the communications firm NATIONAL? Did that firm communicate with you in the course of managing the grant program?
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
Did you say the firm was just called National? Is that the name of the firm?
Bloc
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Does that answer your question, Mr. Fortin, or do you want clarification?
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
I don't think the witness understood my question, Mr. Chair. I'm also having computer issues.
WE Charity awarded a contract to the communications firm NATIONAL to handle the Quebec and francophone portion of the program. I'd like to know whether NATIONAL contacted Katimavik to offer to run part of the program.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you very much.
We will go to Mr. Julian, followed by Mr. Morantz.
Mr. Julian.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Cameron, for being here today. I hope that you and your loved ones are safe and healthy throughout this pandemic.
The first question I want to ask is with regard to one of the most controversial aspects of this scandal: the violation of teachers' codes of ethics. There's a payment that was set up as part of this approach that basically was an incentive for teachers to violate two of the key aspects of the code of ethics. I'll read from the B.C. Teachers' Federation's Code of Ethics. It says that teachers must respect “the confidential nature of information concerning students and [can only] give it...to authorized persons...directly concerned with their welfare”, and that teachers must refrain “from exploiting that relationship for material...advantage.”
Given the subagreement with WE, are you confident that, in terms of Katimavik students, there wasn't a violation of privacy rights or a violation of any ethical codes? In other words, was there a bit of a firewall in the Katimavik contract that was different from the concerns that had been expressed about the general approach of this scheme?
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
Yes. Mr. Julian, Thank you.
In fact, one of the amendments that we requested through those negotiations was to build that firewall. We wanted to ensure that the information of our youth, our stakeholders, our alumni and others remained confidential, and that we could develop a path through which we could protect that confidentiality as it was delivered through the program.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
Thank you for that. I'm glad you stepped forward to at least carve off that portion of the program.
Second, you've indicated that the incentive, or the administrative fee, was $25,000 for the first hundred youth and $50,000 if you recruited 200 youth. Was it based on a $250 payment per student, or was it like the program itself. Basically, if you didn't hit that threshold, you didn't get any of the funding underneath, which people have raised concerns about in terms of violating labour standards and also minimum wage laws?
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
I don't think the formula was shared with us at that time. Essentially, we were basically offered this: If we could deliver a hundred youth into the program, we would be able to access $25,000.
By the way, that wasn't necessarily articulated as an administrative fee, but it was certainly a project expense fee. In order for Katimavik to do that work, that would be the fee that it would benefit from. Then, if we were able to get up to 200 more, it would be to a maximum of $50,000.
However, I don't know that we ever talked about if we had 150, for instance, whether that was a sliding scale in terms of what the charity would benefit from in terms of that amount.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
You'll be able to share the contract with us. Is that right?