Feds post non-existent volunteer positions

WEBSITE ADVERTISING HUNDREDS OF NONEXISTENT POSITIONS

The federal website advertising volunteer positions for students hoping to earn money for their educations through a $900-million government aid program contains hundreds of positions that do not actually exist.

Among the studentvolunteer positions advertised as available on the I Want to Help website are 1,500 spots with YMCA Canada to help create online exercise regimes for kids and seniors in their communities.

Yet the YMCA says those positions were actually the brainchild of WE Charity, the organization originally tapped by the Liberal government to administer the Canada

Student Services Grant, and that the YMCA never agreed to them.

Both the YMCA and WE blame a miscommunication as WE scrambled to get the grant program — through which students can get up to $5,000 toward their schooling if they volunteer the maximum 500 hours — up and running as quickly as possible.

WE has since withdrawn from running the program.

In an interview, YMCA Canada president Peter Dinsdale said his organization proposed hosting 391 volunteers through dozens of YMCA locations. They would focus on three areas: helping local branches with marketing and website design; data analysis; and assisting seniors with tech questions.

The YMCA arrived at the number after reaching out to branches across the country, Dinsdale said, after which the national office drew up a draft memorandum of understanding with WE to formalize the arrangement.

“We sent a draft in and they sent a draft back and that’s when we saw these other positions and we asked to separate them,” he said of the 1,500 positions for online exercise regimes. “And they said great. And we haven’t heard from them since all this has gone down.”

“These discussions (with the YMCA) took place quickly, given our short timeline for delivery, and some confusion arose around the two separate agreements,” WE said in a statement.