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.
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
That's all right.
I believe—and I can look for that as well—that there might have been an email from ESDC at some point with some information about the fact that this program was going to be coming forward and that CSC partners would be engaged in the process by the third party provider.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Okay.
In terms of the WE Charity, which you indicated, in your understanding, is the party that Katimavik entered into an agreement with, were you aware of the WE Charity Foundation at any point?
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
No. I didn't know much about WE Charity prior to hearing about them through this exercise.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
You didn't know anything about WE Charity at all, any of their entities—I mean, other than to have heard of them.
In terms of their involvement in this type of youth programming, or connecting youth in the context of the not-for-profit sector, that would not have been something you would have been familiar with.
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
Exactly.
Of course, we knew about WE Charity, and ME to WE, and WE Days and everything else, but in the context of pairing volunteers with the non-profit and charitable sectors, I was not aware that they were involved in that or had been involved in that.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Katimavik is active in all 10 provinces and three territories in Canada.
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
We are currently active in six. The plan just prior to COVID was to grow from eight to 10 by January and 12 by June. Our goal was a bit thwarted by the pandemic, but that is our intention, to get back to the 12 provinces and—
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Katimavik has a track record and is involved in connecting youth, with approximately how many not-for-profit organizations at any given time? We're talking, I presume, about hundreds.
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
It is hundreds, and I'm happy to provide you with that list as well. As well, we transparently place that on our website.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
You have that track record going back to what, 1977? Do I have that right?
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
Yes, it was 1977. You have that right.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Okay, and it's in both English and French, in Quebec.
In that regard, in terms of partnering, has Katimavik partnered with other charities or other organizations to deliver a program?
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
We partner with institutions to support some of the program initiatives that we can't fund on our own. We're often asked to create partnerships with other charities, and of course we do consider those based on a values-connection synergy basis, but I wouldn't say that we formalize partnerships necessarily to execute on the volunteer placement side. We've been doing that since 1977 on our own and continue to do that now.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
I think that satisfies the questions that I had.
Thank you, Mr. Cameron, for that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you, both, very much.
The last round will go to Mr. McLeod, and then we'll wrap it up.
Go ahead, Mr. McLeod.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you to Mr. Cameron for joining us today.
I want to ask about the Katimavik program. It's an Inuit name, an Inuit language name. I see it's located in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, but I don't see any projects in the north.
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
No. As I was saying in my previous question, very often we are funded to provide the program and to launch the program in certain regions of the country. We were supposed to—prior to COVID—with the support of ESDC, develop a growth plan into all 12 provinces and northern territories of the country.
That was, I want to say, very temporarily stayed, because we have a very definite commitment to make sure that we grow beyond the provinces and into the northern communities as well.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
You would have had the capacity to deliver in the Northwest Territories with the CSSG. Is that what you're saying?
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
We have the capacity through alumni and anyone in the current cohorts who would have come from the north. As you know, our organization has made a 50-year commitment for our last strategic plan to the manifestation of the truth and reconciliation commitment with indigenous communities, so we have a very definite interest.
In every house that Katimavik runs of 11 youth, our goal is to engage three of those 11 youth with indigenous youth. We fell short by one in this last cohort, so we're well on our way to achieving that goal and surpassing it.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
I know historically we saw a lot of people from your organization in the north. We saw a lot of people in different communities, and I don't see that anymore. I don't see anybody from your organization in the communities, and I travel right across the Northwest Territories.
Is that something as a result of the cuts that happened during the Harper government in 2012? You pulled back. You have a Inuit name, but you don't have a strong presence in the north.
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
Yes, as a result of the diversity in funding allotments, let's say, through the years, the organization has had to shrink and expand and be fairly fluid in how we do that, but we do have a large number of alumni from the north who participated in our programs who would have been eligible for the student grants program as a member of our stakeholder group and our alumni base.
We have a number of indigenous community members on our board, and we remain very committed to ensuring that, within the next round of negotiations with the federal government, we retain and regain a presence in the north, for sure.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
I'm sure the impacts in 2012 affected the Katimavik organization. How have the impacts that happened here for this youth opportunity affected your organization?
I think there are a lot of concerns around missed opportunity for the north, but there are also concerns about the ripple effects that have happened to charities and non-profit organizations that have missed out, including all the individuals who would have served and were served by those organizations from coast to coast to coast. Could you talk about that, including how this has impacted your organization?
Chief Executive Officer, Katimavik
We were thrilled, as I said earlier, and excited at the opportunity to participate in this program. In advance of the final negotiations on the agreement, we had restructured our staff team to be able to meet the objectives of the program. One direct impact, of course, was that we lost out on the costs associated with that work, and we had to pull back and re-restructure, no longer with the goal of executing on that program.
There were some sort of direct operational challenges that the removal of the program placed on our shoulders, but we were confident that eventually a solution would be found and that we would participate again in some new vision of how that program's objectives could be achieved.