OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor. This letter is in response to the ongoing WE charity controversy. Send your letter to [email protected]
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In my opinion the Conservatives are missing the mark in the current WE Charity controversy. I say that as a former Conservative Cabinet minister and Member of Parliament.
Here is a brief synopsis of what took place. I believe that the dates and facts are reasonably accurate, but any inaccuracies will not distort the point I want to make.
In April, the WE Charity floated an informal proposal to the federal cabinet that would fund 20,000 post-secondary students up to $5,000 per student if they engaged in volunteer activites this summer.
Before the end of April, as a result of the orginal proposal, a sole source Contribution Agreement was agreed to between the Liberal Government and WE Charity (or their designate) which would have paid WE Charity $19.5 million certain, and possibly up to $43.5 million.
So by May 1, WE Charity had the go-ahead to deliver to 20,000 post-secondary students a program paying up to $5,000 for 500 hours work, presumably by Sept. 1, to enable them to pay tuition and other expenses for the school year.
What happened? On July 5, WE Charity “gave the program back to the Liberal government”.
As all sorts of political issues overtook the issue, the Conservatives abandoned the contractual issue and chased the political issues. I maintain they are missing the point.
The fact is that WE Charity abandoned the students and the government on July 5, half-way through the summer. The government will survive. What will the students do?
Instead of holding their friends at WE Charity to account, the Liberals have wrapped themselves in the role of “trying to do the right thing.”
Instead of holding the Liberals' feet to the fire by enquiring into what due diligence they did, the Conservatives are focusing on the conflict of interest issue.
But even if you have a conflict of interest, don't you have to do due diligence? That's the governance issue which is much more important than the conflict of interest issue.
Put aside the conflict of interest issue and compare the Liberals treatment of a contractual arrangement gone bad with the way Premier Doug Ford handled the “blue licence plate issue.”
The Ontario government contracted with 3M to deliver a series of new licence plates. They were blue rather than white. When it was determined that the new licence plates could not be read properly, the government (which is not in the business of making licence plates, but governing) said to 3M, fix it.
When 3M couldn't fix it, the government cancelled the contract. 3M took the blame and quite rightly so. Nobody blamed the government, for after all 3M has a longstanding record of delivering or it wouldn't have earned its reputation.
So let's get back to the Liberal government's failure to do its due diligence and thus let the students down. That's the real issue.
Doug Lewis
Orillia
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