Key moments in how WE Charity controversy unfolded over student program
A nixed student grant program that was to be administered by WE Charity is the centrepiece of a scandal that’s plagued the Liberal government for weeks and resulted in ethics investigations for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau.
Under a contribution agreement that’s now cancelled, WE could have received upwards of $43.5 million to administer the government’s student grant program. Those who were involved with its development have been appearing before Parliament’s finance committee to testify.
WE Charity founders Craig and Marc Kielburger will testify Tuesday, Trudeau on Thursday.
Here are key moments in the scandal:
> April 5, 2020: Bill Morneau and Justin Trudeau have a call in the evening and discuss how to help students get through the COVID-19 pandemic. Morneau spends the night thinking about it.
> April 6: Morneau wakes up and tasks officials and his ministerial team with brainstorming options to support students. Michelle Kovacevic, assistant deputy minister in the finance department, says that she reached out to public servants in Employment and Social Development Canada to start working on it.
> April 7: WE says it had a conversation with Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade Mary Ng. At this meeting, WE tells the minister about a social entrepreneurship program it had developed to help young people launch small businesses. Ng requests they send it along, which WE did two days later.
> April 8: WE is one of about a dozen organizations contacted by government officials engaged in brainstorming how best to support students. Morneau is briefed and the potential for a grant program is brought up.
> April 9: Kovacevic receives a document from officials in Morneau’s office outlining feedback about students working during the pandemic. WE is one of the stakeholders included in the document. This is the day WE sends its social entrepreneurship program to Ng and also Youth Minister Bardish Chagger and Morneau.
> Mid-April: Rachel Wernick, a senior assistant deputy minister with Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), is asked to gather information and service options for the student support package to be announced this month.
> April 16: In an email discussion with ESDC officials about which organizations could do volunteer work in the country, WE is raised as a possibility, says Kovacevic. She encourages ESDC officials to include WE as a group that could potentially be a delivery option.
> April 17: Bardish Chagger, the Liberal minister responsible for the grant program, meets with WE Charity co-founder Craig Kielburger. Chagger’s office says that they didn’t discuss the government’s plans for a volunteer grant program, but instead the social entrepreneurship proposal that WE had submitted earlier that month.
> April 18: Morneau has a briefing where officials say a partnership with a third party may be necessary to run the program. WE is brought up as a group already doing that kind of work with volunteers and young people. Kovacevic says she told the minister’s office that ESDC said WE Charity might be an option. Morneau pegs this day as the first time he’s been involved in discussions related to WE Charity and the grant program.
> April 19: Wernick speaks with WE Charity several days before the program is made public. Wernick says she contacted the group to “seek some input on the program concept.” Kovacevic says that she sent a briefing to Morneau that included the WE proposal that had been floating around in early April, but it didn’t include an analysis or recommendation for WE.
> April 20: The finance minister’s office “connected with WE” to discuss its ability to deliver volunteer opportunities.
> April 21: Morneau gives verbal approval on the parameters for the student grant program, which involves potentially bringing in a third party. That third party hadn’t been chosen by then, says Morneau.
> April 22: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces a $9 billion package, including the $912 million Canada Student Service Grant program. The public service begins trying to figure out the best way to implement it. That same day, WE Charity sends Wernick a proposal that lays out how they could accommodate thousands of volunteer placements.
> April 23: Discussion around WE possibly administering the program takes place at a meeting with Kovacevic’s team and ESDC officials. They set up a meeting with WE on April 24.
> April 24: ESDC and finance officials speak with WE to better understand its ability to place volunteers. No commitments are made other than to follow up.
> April 26: Morneau speaks with WE Charity founder Craig Kielburger about “the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Morneau says the grant program wasn’t brought up. From March 1, 2020 until June 30, 2020, Morneau says this conversation was the only one he can recall where he spoke directly with someone from WE.
> Early May: Near the end of April, Wernick and her colleagues had decided that WE was the best group to deliver the grant program. Wernick sent the draft cabinet proposal to her deputy minister. Her deputy minister’s office then sent it to Chagger.
> May 5: Even though it hadn’t officially been given the deal, WE starts working on the program. At a cabinet meeting, Chagger presents the first proposal for the grant program which included WE as the preferred administrator. Morneau says he was not at this meeting.
> May 7: Morneau is briefed on the cabinet meeting and Kovacevic receives a May 4 proposal from ESDC where WE outlines how they would deliver the grant program. “This is the first-time finance officials saw a proposal where WE Charity could be the third-party administrator for the program,” says Kovacevic.
> Mid-May: Wernick says they entered into negotiations with WE over the contribution agreement. The contribution agreement would lay out the parameters around the CSSG program.
> May 21: Ian Shugart, clerk of the privy council, says there was a briefing between officials from his office and Justin Trudeau where the program was discussed.
> May 22: Full cabinet meeting takes place where the grant program is presented. This discussion is one where Morneau says he should have recused himself.
> June 3: Morneau approves the final funding for the program. “That was my last direct engagement with the program’s development,” he says.
> June 23: WE Charity is told that the agreement to run the program has been approved.
> June 25: WE Charity is named publicly as having been awarded the deal.
> June 30: WE receives $19.5 million from the government. The organization says none of it was used and it will all be returned.
> July 3: It is revealed that Trudeau is being investigated by the ethics commissioner for his role in the WE Charity deal. His wife is a WE Charity ambassador and podcast host.
> July 9: It’s revealed in media reports that Trudeau’s brother and mother received a combined $282,000 in speaking fees from WE between 2016 and 2020.
> July 10: It is revealed that Bill Morneau’s daughter works for WE.
> July 14: Morneau and Trudeau apologize for not recusing themselves from cabinet discussions about the WE deal.
> July 16: Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion opens an investigation into Morneau’s role in WE deal.
> July 22: Morneau pays back $41,366 that WE paid in expenses during 2017 when his family went on two trips to Ecuador and Kenya to see some of the group’s work. He says he’d just discovered that the money was left unpaid and that his family had covered flights and accommodations for the trips to the tune of $52,000. Conservative MPs immediately call for Morneau to resign.