WE Charity registers as lobbyist, lays off staff, looking to sell real estate
OTTAWA — WE Charity registered Thursday as a lobbyist of the federal government — months after it began talks with federal officials about potential programs to help Canadian youths during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The organization’s executive director, Dalal Al-Waheidi, disclosed the registration during testimony before the House of Commons finance committee, which is probing the controversy surrounding the Liberal government’s decision to pay WE Charity up to $43.5 million to administer a now-abandoned student grant program.
The controversy has triggered investigations by the federal ethics watchdog into potential breaches of conflict of interest rules by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau, both of whom have close family ties to WE Charity.
And it was blamed at least in part for WE Charity’s announcement earlier Thursday that it is scaling back its operations, making dozens of layoffs in Canada and the United Kingdom, while also looking to sell some of its real estate holdings in Toronto.
WE Charity said its financial position has been greatly affected by the COVID19 pandemic and “recent events,” prompting it to shift programming and reduce staff.
In its filing to the federal lobbyist registry, WE Charity disclosed 65 communications with federal officials or ministers in 19 different departments or federal institutions, dating as far back as January 2019. It lists 18 individuals, including Al-Waheidi, as in-house lobbyists for the organization. Craig and Marc Kielburger, the brothers who founded WE charity, are not listed even though they have talked to ministers.
Youth Minister Bardish Chagger’s office immediately reported at least one other inaccuracy in the registration to the lobbying commissioner.
Chagger has testified she had a phone conversation with Craig Kielburger on April 17 about an unsolicited WE proposal for a youth entrepreneurship program, which was ultimately rejected by the government. She said no one else from her office was involved in the call. The charity’s report says her chief of staff and others were there.
The Lobbying Act requires an organization with in-house lobbyists to register within two months of the time when at least one full-time employee spends at least 20 per cent of his or her time in lobbying activities.
Opposition parties last month asked lobbying commissioner Nancy Belanger to investigate whether WE Charity violated the act.
“It’s an incredible coincidence that your organization has suddenly registered to lobby all of these months after all of the lobbying happened,” Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre told WE Charity representatives at the committee.
Al-Waheidi, who as executive director was the person responsible for registering, said that had WE Charity considered it necessary to register before now, it would have done so. In previous years, she said the organization spent “minimal” time lobbying the federal government, estimating the cost of such activities at one to three per cent of its budget.
More than half of the group’s reported communications took place from April to June, primarily with officials in Employment and Social Development Canada and Morneau’s office. The reports accompanying each communication do not go into details, other than to say “employment and training” was discussed.
Ministers and federal bureaucrats have testified they had some discussions with WE Charity in April about an unsolicited youth entrepreneurship proposal the Liberal government ultimately rejected.