Read on Twitter
So apparently the PM said this. I assume the public service would be comfortable releasing the actual research which led to this, yes?
But see, this statement is really dodgy. Running a program like this is a lot more than just twinning individuals with opportunities.
Let's take a look at program guidelines. Here are the conditions required to participate. Even assuming WE is good at matching students with opportunities, why would we think they have any particular ability to monitor/police this stuff? What experience do they have?
The payout to students is based on hours worked, which means *that* has to be monitored to. What evidence is there WE has the ability.capacity to do this over thousands of different organizations?
And holy crap, take a look at what is being promised to employers. This requires a lot employees who themselves need to be instantly trained up. Again, do we really think WE has this capacity?
Also, PMJT said this. I'd be very curious to know what mechanisms exist to ensure that this is the case. I mean, legally of course a charity can't run a profit but there are lots of ways to hide surpluses, especially given the tied-at-the-hip relationship WE has with ME to WE.
Sources for this thread: CBC news story: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/we-charity-student-volunteer-program-1.5628610, Global news: https://globalnews.ca/news/7112488/trudeau-we-charity-coronavirus/ and the Canada Student Service Grant website: https://globalnews.ca/news/7112488/trudeau-we-charity-coronavirus/
Also, last point: super predictable that the Canadian media went after the "OMG PM and Sophie have themselves volunteered for this organization" (WHICH IS NOT A GODDAMN CONFLICT OF INTEREST) angle rather the substantive issues around policy delivery and procurement angle. Lazy,
Last point: there is a school of thought which treats the pandemic as grounds to say "Government is BACK, baby". True the feds have got v. good at processing a lot of cheques quickly. Their ability to do regular program admin has not improved. And it can lead to stuff like this.
