Letter from Canada’s Conservatives to the Auditor General regarding Liberal government’s outsourcing of $900 million Canada Student Service Grant to WE Charity

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OTTAWA, ON – Today, the Hon. Pierre Poilievre, Conservative Shadow Minister for Finance, Dan Albas, Shadow Minister for Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, and Raquel Dancho, Shadow Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Youth, wrote a letter to the Auditor General asking her to include the Trudeau government’s decision to outsource the $900 million-dollar Canada Student Service Grant, and the administration of this program to the internationally run WE Charity, in her final report to Parliament on the government’s COVID-19 spending.

The following is an excerpt of the letter:

Outsourcing a $900 million-dollar program designed to pay students and recent graduates for volunteer work to a third party raises justifiable concerns and a number of questions. In addition, the connections between WE Charity and the Prime Minister are well documented.

The letter continues:

By outsourcing this program to a third party, the proper channels for Opposition scrutiny, the very bedrock of our parliamentary democracy, have been circumvented. Indeed, it is your office that will provide the most legitimate and transparent examination of this program.

The Trudeau government has brought forward unprecedented levels of spending and administration of programs due to COVID-19, but this does not mean that accountability, transparency and value for money should be ignored. Simply put, they can never be ignored.

The full letter can be read here.