Minister met with WE Charity days before student program was announced by PM
Bardish Chagger, the Liberal youth minister, and Craig Kielburger, co-founder of the WE Charity.
The Liberal minister responsible for the Canada Student Service Grant met with WE Charity almost a week before the $912-million COVID-19 student volunteering program was announced, the Star has learned.
Bardish Chagger’s office confirmed Monday the youth minister spoke to WE co-founder Craig Kielburger on April 17 — five days before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the creation of the volunteer grant program designed to help students impacted by the pandemic.
Chagger’s office said the minister and Kielburger did not discuss the Liberals’ plans for a volunteering grant program during the phone call. Instead, the two discussed WE’s pitch to create a “social entrepreneurship” program for young Canadians during COVID-19.
“Our office reviewed (WE’s social entrepreneurship pitch) in early April, and this meeting, this phone call, was in reference to that. And it didn’t go anywhere,” Dani Keenan, a spokesperson for Chagger, said Monday.
Chagger did not mention the meeting with Kielburger Thursday while testifying before the House of Commons’ finance committee. The committee is probing the Liberal cabinet’s decision to outsource the volunteer grant program to WE, a decision that has seen federal ethics commissioner Mario Dion launch investigations of Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau.
Asked if she discussed the grant program with WE before the cabinet discussion, Chagger said: “I did not discuss this program, the CSSG (Canada Student Service Grant) program, with anyone at WE.”
Rachel Wernick, the senior civil servant who recommended to cabinet that WE administer the grants, told the committee she had approved a briefing note for Chagger about WE’s social entrepreneurship pitch in advance of the April 17 meeting.
WE Charity said last week it had circulated a proposal within the Liberal government on April 9, proposing an entrepreneurship mentoring program for young Canadians during COVID-19. WE’s proposal was to run a 10-week program teaching young Canadians about social entrepreneurship, with a price tag between $6 million and $14 million.
Wernick testified that multiple ministers and officials had received WE’s pitch, but only two are known: Chagger and Mary Ng, minister for small business, export promotion and international trade.
The Prime Minister’s Office could not say Monday how many more ministers and officials were aware of WE’s proposal.
Wernick testified that she called Kielburger on April 19, two days after Chagger and Kielburger spoke on the phone, to inform WE about the upcoming volunteer grant program. When Trudeau announced the program on April 22, WE submitted a proposal focused on volunteering rather than social entrepreneurship.
Wernick ultimately recommended the government select WE to run the program in early May. Chagger announced WE Charity had been selected to run the program at an initial cost of $19.5 million in a June 25 interview with the Star.
During Thursday’s committee meeting, Chagger revealed the federal government was ready to provide upwards of $43.5 million to WE.
The eventual CSSG program looks very different from Kielburger’s proposed social entrepreneurship program — except that both were aimed at the same demographic.
As he faced criticism this month, Trudeau said WE, a Toronto-based charity, was the only “organization that was capable of networking and organizing and delivering this program on the scale that we needed it.” Then as the scandal grew, the Liberals and WE agreed to end the deal. The CSSG program will instead be administered by the federal government.
But opposition parties suggest the Liberals tailored the $912million program to award WE the contract, pointing to several connections between the charity formerly known as Free the Children, and the Liberals.
Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, is known as an “ambassador and ally” of the charity, and it was later revealed that WE had paid $282,000 in speaking fees to the prime minister’s mother and brother between 2016 and 2020.
Morneau’s daughter, Grace Acan, works for the charity. Both men have apologized for not recusing themselves from the cabinet discussion and ultimate decision to award WE the contract.
Trudeau was not present in the House of Commons Monday, leaving Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland to field questions about the scandal.
“The non-partisan public service recommended this structure as the only way to deliver the program in the required time.
“Obviously, the way this unfolded was regrettable, and that is why the charity is no longer administering the project,” Freeland told MPs during Question Period.
Opposition MPs will have a chance to question Trudeau directly on Tuesday, when he is scheduled to attend Question Period.