Canada's top public servant says agreement with WE Charity was 'typical' – CBC.ca

Canada’s top bureaucrat says the agreement with WE Charity to manage a $900-million student volunteer program was “typical” and would have gone through the routine checks and balances.

Appearing at the House of Commons ethics committee Tuesday, Clerk of the Privy Council Ian Shugart said officials with Employment and Social Development Canada were in charge of the file, and that he saw no red flags that warranted giving special advice to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“All I can say is that the contribution agreement in this case was typical of relationships between [a] government department and an entity, guided by principles of audit and due diligence with respect to interests of the Crown,” he said. “This contribution agreement will bear scrutiny as typical of the mechanisms that have been approved by the Treasury Board and have been used in the government for a very, very long time.”

The ethics committee is questioning senior government officials as it continues its probe into WE’s contract to administer the Canada student service grant program.

Diversity, Inclusion and Youth Minister Bardish Chagger and Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough are also set to be in the hot seat for the hearings.

Trudeau and his government have been under fire for awarding WE Charity the deal to manage the program despite ties between the charity and members of Trudeau’s family. WE Charity subsequently withdrew from the agreement due to controversy.

Trudeau has maintained that despite the fact his wife, mother and brother had received payments from WE, he did not place himself in a conflict of interest by taking part in cabinet talks around the program. He did, however, apologize for failing to recuse himself from those discussions.

WE Charity was selected to run the program and did not go through a competitive bidding process. Trudeau has maintained that senior government officials said the charity was the only organization able to deliver the program.

He has said he was surprised to see the agreement on the cabinet agenda on May 8, and that he asked for more due diligence to ensure WE was the best organization to deliver the program.

Shugart said he was “generally aware” that there was a desire for due diligence by the prime minister and his chief of staff, Katie Telford, but left that work to the officials handling the program.

“I was not personally involved in that due diligence. My opinion was not sought and I did not see anything at the time that required my giving the prime minister specific advice,” he said.

“The followup to his request was being undertaken by officials, and it did not occur to me at the time, or indeed in retrospect as I’ve thought about this, there was anything in that circumstance that called for more than the followup that was being done by the officials.”

Since the controversy erupted, issues around WE’s financial situation and governance have been brought in to the spotlight. 

Shugart said he believed the due diligence was sufficient, but conceded that closer scrutiny could have been done and that lessons have been learned.

“I think knowing in retrospect what we know now, we probably would have inquired further. But I must also say that even looking back now, I have no evidence that the WE organization, had the program gone ahead, would not be able to deliver the program as set out in contribution agreement,” he said.

The program, which never got off the ground, was designed to give students who couldn’t find summer jobs a chance to earn a stipend for volunteer work in “national service” activities related to fighting the pandemic. 

Morneau embroiled in controversy

Finance Minister Bill Morneau is also facing criticism for not recusing himself from those cabinet talks because his daughter, Grace, works at WE in the travel department. His other daughter, Clare, has spoken at WE Day events.

Morneau revealed to the House of Commons finance committee on July 22 that WE Charity covered $41,000 in costs for him and his family in 2017 for trips to Ecuador and Kenya to view the organization’s humanitarian work. 

At the time, Morneau said he didn’t realize he hadn’t personally repaid WE for the trips, and that he repaid the costs that morning. 

During a news conference before the committee hearings, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said his MPs will continue to press for answers in the “scandal.” He said the Liberal government is not being accountable for the controversy.

“We know that the prime minister isn’t going to take responsibility, he never does. No member of cabinet or the prime minister’s inner circle has been fired,” he said. “In fact the Liberals seem to be desperately trying to pretend that there’s nothing to see here. But no one is buying Justin Trudeau’s latest excuses.”

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