Summer-work program changes quashed by feds

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This article was published 19/03/2018 (2227 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The federal Liberals have defeated a last-ditch attempt to extend a federal summer-work program to social conservative groups, who are scrambling to fill a cash shortfall after clashing with Ottawa over abortion rights.

Provencher MP Ted Falk said the issue has been raised for weeks in his riding.

“I’ve met with different groups through Winnipeg as well, (who) feel a values test is something that’s completely inappropriate in our society,” said Falk, a Conservative.

Early this year, the Trudeau government changed the Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) application to require organizations to check a box, saying the job and the group’s “core mandate” respects Charter values including “reproductive rights” and not discriminating based on “sexual orientation or gender identity.”

The changes have led to a twelvefold increase in rejections under the program, which stopped accepting applications a month ago.

On Monday, after weeks of outcry from church groups and some First Nations, the Tories had Parliament vote a motion asking Ottawa to extend funding to those who didn’t check that box.

Just one Liberal and New Democrat MP voted for the Tory motion, which failed 207-93.

That has left groups, such as Winnipeg’s Centerpoint Church, scrambling.

For decades, the church’s Discovery Day Camp provided 700 children road trips, religious lessons and swimming days. Pastors say CSJ has helped fund the program for 24 years; last year, its $8,124 contribution paid for two of the nine staff positions.

Mark Werner, youth pastor for the non-denominational Evangelical church, decried the new policy. “It’s not that we’re against people or anything like that. We love people, that’s what we do here. But we don’t necessarily agree with that stance.”

Following instructions for a coalition of church groups, Werner printed off the online form, struck out the attestation about Charter values, and sent it in. Activists hoped the government would renege, but instead the department gave groups 10 days to endorse the attestation.

The church asked Service Canada to accommodate its religious views. If unsuccessful, it will forego some upkeep on the building, which undergoes wear and tear each summer as hundreds of children pass through.

“We’ll just have to cut back, and we trust that God will give us an amazing summer,” said Werner.

His colleague, senior pastor Glenn Krobel, said he feared “a hierarchy of rights” that whichever government of the day can change. “For people of religious conscious in this country… it really feels like the government is being a bully.”

Employment Minister Patty Hajdu has long stressed the wording only applies to the activities the group does, and is meant to leave out groups actively trying to oppose existing freedoms.

“This is about core activities in job descriptions and making sure that young kids get good quality jobs for the summer,” Hajdu told the Free Press on Monday. She noted the number of applications has gone up since last year — though rejections have also jumped, to 1,561 from 126.

Winnipeg groups have been tight-lipped about the CSJ changes.

Manitoba’s second-largest recipient last year was Donwood Manor, a senior’s home in Kildonan sponsored by Mennonite churches. Last year, Donwood received $66,306 through the program to fund 15 positions. The group declined to comment Monday.

The University of Manitoba was the province’s largest recipient of CSJ dollars last year, with $120,384 funding 64 positions. A spokesman said it has not had an issue with the policy change.

Meanwhile, the Manitoba Islamic Association has raised concerns about the changes, but declined an interview request. The group had received $27,362 to fund eight positions.

Earlier this month, Steinbach’s city council passed a resolution to formally write to Ottawa asking to approve applications without the Charter attestation. Coun. Earl Funk, who tabled the motion, said the program has a disproportionate impact on smaller cities, and he’d heard from numerous groups getting rejected.

“You can take religion out of it; it’s still about freedom,” said Funk. “I don’t want to see our freedoms eroded, one questionnaire at a time.”

However, Charleswood-area MP Doug Eyolfson said the change was meant to bar Ottawa from paying youth to carry graphic photos of aborted fetuses, or groups that won’t hire gay people.

“Because there was no requirement that they couldn’t do these things, we were powerless to stop it,” he said. “You cannot do that on the government dime.”

Eyolfson said he’d heard from some constituents opposing the policy, but that they were almost all form-letters, and that MPs give personally written letters more weight than organized campaigns.

“I understand the sensitivity to this,” said Eyolfson, adding the Conservatives “tend to mobilize certain bases, but this doesn’t tell people what they have to believe.”

Yet Falk, the Tory MP, warned of dire consequences.

“This could absolutely set a precedent, and the prime minister has indicated that his intention is to apply similar attestation to other government programs, and so that’s a very dangerous road we’re going down; we don’t have to look too far back in history to see where that goes,” he said, declining to provide an example.

“There’s lots of evidence in history that says that, once people are being conscripted into their beliefs and their ideology, that there’s certain groups that don’t fit that equation.” 

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

Canada Summer Jobs form, 2018 version