Roundup: Yet more questions about the WE contract

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The whole situation with the sole-source contract for WE Charities continues to spiral, as one of the co-founders was found to have claimed that PMO reached out to them shortly after the April announcement on the creation of the student grant programme – only for him to have since retracted and said that he was over-enthusiastic, and it was really a senior bureaucrat from Employment and Skills Development Canada. PMO has also since denied making contact, and senior bureaucrats have stepped up to say it was them, but while that may in fact be the case, it’s still the minister who is responsible for the decision, and I don’t see any minister stepping forward on this. It just goes back to this government’s complete inability to manage their own crisis communications without stepping on six more rakes along the way. It’s complete amateur hour.

On top of this, it sounds like part of the way in which WE is managing this programme is to offer $12,000 payments to teachers who can recruit 75 to 100 students, and to be their mentors and managers along the way, which is unusual. It also raises the question of how this was what was so imperative about how this organization was the “only one” capable of administering the grant programme if this is how they’re running it. All the more reason for MPs to call an emergency committee meeting and haul the responsible minister and deputy minister before them to answer questions and provide documentation that proves that WE was the only outfit that could meet their criteria – you know, like it’s their job to.

Good reads:

  • The government is extending the travel ban on most foreigners to Canada for another month, as some EU countries start relaxing their closures.
  • Here is a look at the slow pace of getting a more diverse judiciary in Canada (which isn’t helped by this government’s insistence on applications over nominations).
  • The solution to long-term care may be harder than initially thought, as many of the facilities will need to be literally torn down and rebuilt to ensure safety.
  • Here’s a longread about how bureaucratic wrangling in Ottawa effectively prevented an Ebola vaccine from being useful, at the cost of thousands of lives.
  • The head of Air Canada is complaining that either the government needs to relax pandemic travel measures or offer more support for the industry.
  • Air Canada also cancelled a number of domestic routes, citing weak demand.
  • A Canadian arrested in Beijing for practicing Falun Gong has been sentenced to eight years, which is believed to be another retaliation for Meng Wanzhou’s arrest.
  • Putin’s allies in Russia are going after our ambassador because she made statements in support of same-sex marriage in advance of a vote on banning it.
  • The prime minister has appointed Salma Lakhani as the new Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, making her the first Muslim vice-regal in Canada.
  • Justin Ling looks into how the RCMP’s own research shows their tactics are ineffective against people with mental health situations, yet they keep using them.
  • Susan Delacourt remarks on how the pandemic has inflated Canada’s sense of superiority for our healthcare system, as compared to the United States.
  • My column looks at how MPs continue to make themselves irrelevant, either by turning over power to the Auditor General or their leaders, which is infuriating.

Odds and ends:

Here’s a look at how the Canada Goose bounced back after near-extinction, to become the populous nuisance that they are today.

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6 thoughts on “Roundup: Yet more questions about the WE contract”

  1. I find it incredible that Canada, with one of the best civil services in the World, has to go to an outside source in order to administer a billion dollars. Even a non-profit like WE, with an infusion of cash like this, would move up the ladder of sizeable charities. Huge advantage, and with no transparent competitive process, stinks of favoritism.
    We can now move WE into the Venn Diagram of the PM’s favorite business partners.

  2. This is not to mention that the recruitment process, which moves to third hand now, may have little oversight as to equality, transparency, or fairness.

  3. I just hope that God forbid, the next time that the Conservatives gain power there is just as much vociferous outrage when they outsource a project under a sole contract. One minute the same folks who are constantly calling for smaller government are OK with more bureaucracy here.

  4. The fact is clear, Mr. Mack. conservatives constantly do and say these things.
    1. Do as we say, not as we do.
    2.What we say is not always what we believe.
    3.You can have freedom of choice as long as it fits our criteria.
    4.We protect the common people just enough to allow big business to extract the maximum from them.
    5.Taxes are the cost of having a job. Lower taxes are the reward for providing jobs.
    6. When we have a disagreement with you over policy, we never give you our policy. We call you names.
    7. We don’t suffer from systematic racism, we are “old stock.”
    Have a “nice” day!

  5. It’s summer, it’s Canada Day, and people are still coming out of the Covid stupor. Is this hair-on-fire BS really gaining any traction outside partisan social media and the Ottawa press bubble? Seems to me the Conservatives and their useful idiots in the NDP weren’t getting any camera time, so they came up with another overblown manufactured outrage item to get angry about. What are they going to do, call in Sophie and Margaret to testify? Call the cops again? This is a new low even for them, going after a kids’ charity to accuse Trudeau of self-dealing and now even his wife. After she was sick, at that, and his mother narrowly escaped a house fire. It’s “Clinton Cash” all over again. But his emails. Sheesh, come up with a new act.

    • Don’t forget Benghazi. None of your rants is complete without a mention of Benghazi. But I will admit that the mention of Margaret’s house fire was a nice touch.

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