A petition calling on the federal government to rethink its $912 million agreement with WE Charity has garnered 968 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon, surpassing its original goal of 500. 

Led by Toronto-based consulting firm The Good Partnership, the petition is calling on the government to redirect the entire $912 million away from WE Charity and toward the Canada Summer Jobs Program, saying the program will have “a net negative impact on the social sector.” Among those supporting the petition include Vice President of the Canadian Association of Gift Planners Paul Nazareth and acting CEO of G(irls)20 Bailey Greenspon. 

Last week, the federal government announced that WE Charity would administer the Canada Student Service Grant, a program offering up to $5,000, or $1,000 for every 100 hours worked, to returning post-secondary students this summer in exchange for volunteer work. 

The announcement was met with heavy criticism from those who say the partnership with WE is a conflict of interest due to Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau’s long-standing working relationship with the organization. More criticism has emerged since, centred around what critics say was a lack of transparency around the decision to work with WE, poor program design, and that the program blurs the line between paid and volunteer work. 

During a Monday afternoon press briefing, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended the decision. “When we wanted to move forward to help various food banks across the country, we worked with the charity Food Banks Canada in order to deliver the program. When we wanted to help grassroots community organizations, we worked with the United Way in order to deliver that program,” he said.

The Good Partnership COO Aine McGlynn told Future of Good that the government did not include the social sector in the design of the program. “Changing the structure of a summer program without consultation with the charitable sector displays a lack of respect for the social service sector,” she said. “This has been a decision taken unilaterally and without the sector’s support.”

In a document further explaining the petition’s demands, organizers wrote that the charitable sector is not equipped to handle an influx of student volunteers. “The charitable sector expects to lose $9.5 billion and lay off 117,000 staff, most of them women as a result of the pandemic. It is perverse to financially address the student and youth unemployment issue by using nonprofits — a critical infrastructure that has experienced mass unemployment and has not received adequate funding to continue its fundamental and essential work.”

Furthermore, petition organizers wrote in the document that opportunities through the program should not be labelled as volunteer: “Prioritize this funding to better support the infrastructure for youth-supporting organizations to engage young people in meaningful, paid work placements. A volunteer program is not the optimal mechanism by which young people are paid for their efforts.”

The petition is also calling for full transparency on funding for the program moving forward. “Given the porous division between WE Charity and their for-profit entities, we have concerns about the use of public funds to generate private benefit,” McGlynn said. 

The final of three demands in the petition is for the government to, through the program, “mandate allocation of funds to equity-seeking groups,” including Black, Indigenous, and people of colour. 

If the funds are not redirected away from WE Charity, the petition is calling on the government to “mandate WE Charity to collect and publish data that shows who and how youth from equity-seeking groups are being prioritized in getting access to opportunities,” and “mandate WE Charity to collect and publish data that shows which organizations ‘hosted’ youth and as such received stipends to run the program.”

McGlynn told Future of Good that The Good Partnership is “still triangulating on the right MP to steward the petition,” and “will be reminding MP’s at every 1,000 signature increment that this call to action needs to be addressed.”

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