Evidence of meeting #69 for Public Accounts in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was foundation.
A video is available from Parliament.
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
There was no response because their involvement with that file terminated, because it was found that they had done some work for us. They were not independent of us.
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
Then within a very short time, the board resigned, so—
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
We have now gone to a third law firm in the last few weeks.
Conservative
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
To have those questions and others—a broad range of questions—answered.
Conservative
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
That is Norton Rose.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
When did you retain them to give you a legal opinion on this issue?
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
It would have been I'm guessing two to three weeks ago, two weeks ago, at least. I was out of the country and not aware at the time. I was not involved.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Given the highly important matter before Parliament on this particular issue, are you prepared to give us an undertaking to release portions of that legal opinion?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Thank you, Mr. Brock. That's your time.
I'll allow a brief answer, Mr. Johnson.
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
Yes, we're happy to tell the results of that inquiry and share them with whoever would be interested.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Turning back to the government bench now, Mr. Sidhu, you have the floor for five minutes, please.
Pardon me, Ms. Bradford. You have the floor for five minutes.
Liberal
Liberal
Maninder Sidhu Liberal Brampton East, ON
I can start.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be splitting my time with Ms. Bradford.
Thank you, Mr. Johnson, for being here today with us.
I want to know more about the important work the foundation does to provide support for students and their education. Can you speak a little bit more about how many students have been helped over the number of years and what the impact has been on the youth across Canada?
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
I should point out at the beginning that we do doctoral scholarships. We have done 295 scholarships with a total of $60,000 a year for each scholarship, and the scholarships last for three years.
In addition to that, we engage mentors. We have had 163 mentors since we were started in 2002, and we have also done 88 fellowships. The mentors and the fellows assist the scholars in their work and work at broadening their program outside the areas of their specific and often very narrow areas of study. They take them into other aspects of life in Canada and around the world in an effort to inculcate a leadership ability among these very high-flying scholars and to try to encourage them to be able to share their knowledge with the broader public in ways that are understandable to Canadians.
That's the essence of our program. On top of that, we have this public interaction program, which is precisely that, where they get out and see parts of the country and broaden their horizons beyond their narrow areas of study.
Liberal
Valerie Bradford Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Johnson, you started out with $125-million endowment, and it has now grown to $145 million.
Can you tell me how you fund and sustain these 12 scholarships of $60,000 a year without having to touch any of that capital?
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
We use the income from the endowment. We have invested the endowment in an investment program. The asset allocation in that program is approved by the government, by the finance department and the ISED department, so we're pretty conservative investors, but the result is that we have been able to provide funds through those investments, dividend and interest income as well as the odd capital gain. That has been successful in funding our agreement in our activities.
Any excess, if we're lucky enough to have a year where we exceed, goes back into the endowment. That's why we're at $145 million up from originally $125 million.
Liberal
Valerie Bradford Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
Can you give us a sense of the average rate of return you're getting on your—
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
The last six years or so, I think it's either 5% or 5.5%.
Liberal
Valerie Bradford Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
What are some of the ways that Canadians can support the foundation?
Chair of the Board of Directors, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
They can donate. They're always welcome. I made a pitch back in November to encourage everyone, including members of our community, to support us and assist us because, I have to tell you, we need that help. There's a problem.
Yes, we built the endowment, but we're falling short of inflation. As inflation grows and as inflation gets ahead of us, we have a gap.
If we want to operate our same inflation-adjusted program we started out with in 2022, we think we should have something in the neighbourhood of $170 million, so we have a gap to close there. That's what we have been working on over the years in our development program.
Liberal
Valerie Bradford Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
What are the short-, medium- and long-term impacts of investing in students and their futures through scholarships, in your opinion?