Non-profits want Trudeau to scrap the Canada Student Service Grant. Here’s why — and where the money should go instead.

“Can you believe this WE thing?”

That’s been the new opening line of several conversations in the non-profit and charitable sector over the past few weeks, says Dominique Souris, youth leader and co-founder of the non-profit Youth Climate Lab.

Souris, however, was not referring to the political storm engulfing Justin Trudeau’s government – under fire for conflicts of interest in awarding the WE charity contract. She was more concerned about their frustration and disbelief at the government’s new youth volunteer program. As her youth-serving organization struggles to deal with the impacts of COVID-19, she says gaining new volunteers will not help.

“You’re actually, in a way, putting more work on us – we’re already very strapped [for time],” says Souris, who was recently named one of Future of Good’s 21 New Founders to Watch. “Who would manage them? What would they do?” she asks. “We don’t have time for this.”

Called the Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG), the now-paused program aims to pay post-secondary students and recent graduates for voluntary work completed before the end of October. The federal government boasted that the volunteering platform would create tens of thousands of opportunities for students to “support their communities’ COVID-19 response and gain invaluable experience.”

Despite these lofty intentions, the program’s design has been heavily criticized across the non-profit and charitable sector. Critics have highlighted a plethora of issues with the program, from how it pays students for their work, to the lack of capacity in non-profits and charities to absorb thousands of new volunteers.

So where exactly has the program gone wrong in its design, and how could the government spend the $912 million more effectively to support charities and young people?

The sector says the program should be scrapped

Charities and youth working in social impact say the program should be scrapped entirely, for two major reasons: it blurs the line between volunteering and employment; and charities and non-profits say a huge influx of new volunteers is far from what they need.

For every 100 hours of eligible volunteering, up to 500 hours, students would be paid $1,000. Therefore, $10 is the maximum volunteers would be paid per hour – less than the minimum wage. Charitable organizations could face legal employment complaints as they could be breaking provincial labour laws.

Students would also be paid in one lump sum at the end, which may not be financially viable. “In the meantime, how are students supposed to eat? How are students supposed to pay their bills?” asks Fateha Hossain, a student volunteer at the University of Toronto, who was named in Future of Good’s 2019 list of 21 Youth Reshaping Governance. “This is for the privileged” who can afford the time, she says. 

Charities and non-profits, meanwhile, may already have more volunteers than they can manage. According to Volunteer Canada, 52 percent of Canadians looking to volunteer with non-profits during the pandemic have not heard back, while 43 percent of volunteer managers have been experiencing lay-offs, reduced hours or less support staff.

Placing student volunteers en masse makes it less likely that they will find valuable roles for their development or the charity’s work, says Joanne McKiernan, executive director of Volunteer Toronto. “It’s a recipe for the development of ‘make work’ projects,” she says. It could also disadvantage small organizations that can’t handle that kind of influx, many of which have been hit hardest during COVID-19.

“A lot of smaller organizations don’t always have the capacity to organize and manage volunteers properly,” says Varun Banthia, who used to volunteer at the Dugout Drop-In Centre, a soup kitchen in Vancouver, while he was studying at the University of British Columbia. “Finding meaningful work takes effort and time.” 

What’s the fix? Expand and improve the Canada Summer Jobs program

Instead of building a brand new program, opposition politicians and figures across the non-profit and charitable sector have pointed out that a useful alternative already exists: the Canada Summer Jobs program.

“We don’t need to invest $900 million in an untested new program when we already have Canada Summer Jobs, a proven program,” says Eric Melillo, the Conservative MP for Kenora. At 22 years old, Melillo is the youngest member of parliament and was once a CSJ participant. 

The Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) program is a wage subsidy of up to 100 percent that helps employers in the non-profit, small business and public sectors provide paid temporary positions – paid at least minimum wage – for youth between 15 and 30. 

It’s popular, too: last year, 89 percent of youth and 82 percent of employers were satisfied or very satisfied with their experience. By applying to the government for certain positions, charities and non-profits can pick students based on their specific needs, instead of working to find room for extra volunteers.

The government has already made changes to the program because of COVID-19, including extending it to February 2021 and allowing part-time positions. This year it is targeting approximately 70,000 placements.

But there’s certainly more room for improvement. Melillo says many of constituents complain that “long wait times for funding approvals make it difficult to budget for the season,” typically only hearing confirmation in May – half a year after applications open.

“The program is really hard to plan ahead for,” which means it’s difficult to make commitments to students, says Meredith Adler, executive director of Student Energy, a charity supporting new leaders in sustainable energy. 

Having employed CSJ students in the last few years, Adler says she had a number of young people lined up for positions this year, but was only rejected at the start of June, when she was told that there wasn’t enough funding. She says she has heard the same from several other charities and non-profits that usually rely on the program.

Funding could not only be used to increase the number of CSJ placements, Adler says, but create or expand innovative schemes that pair professional development for young people with temporary work opportunities. Natural Resources Canada’s Green Jobs program, for example, she says, which combines an internship in an environmental organization with skills training, has helped to launch the careers of several of her peers.

“With the 900 million dollars, you could have a really effective and interesting skill-building program that would really accelerate the ability of young people to deliver on Canada’s goals post-COVID,” she says.

Extra resources could also be used to improve processing times, much like the Canada Revenue Agency bulks up its capacity during tax time, suggests Charles Cirtwill, CEO of the Northern Policy Institute think tank, which has long relied on CSJ students including Eric Melillo. “It is not unusual for the government to bring in extra staff,” he says.

Dominique Souris applied for staff members through the Canada Summer Jobs program back in February but is still waiting for confirmation after being asked for amendments to her application. She says the process has been slow as it involves both local members of parliament’s offices as well as Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). “It’s been a rollercoaster in terms of getting the support and being able to employ the young people we want to work with,” she says.

Souris does work with two volunteers who spend a few hours a week supporting Youth Climate Lab’s social media, but says she is keen to move away from volunteerism. “There is a role for volunteers in this work, a hundred percent,” she says. What’s missing are “models where young people can work on climate in a youth-for-youth way that is paid, valued and recognized.”

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