Ted Falk, Member of Parliament for Provencher, reacted to newly released details about the impact of the Liberal government’s Canada Summer Jobs program attestation requirement on Manitobans.
The response to an order paper question submitted by Mr. Falk revealed this week that 101 community and faith-based organizations in Manitoba were unable to participate in the Canada Summer Jobs program because of the Liberal government’s discriminatory values test. This figure makes up part of the 1,559 applications that were denied over the attestation nationwide. Mr. Falk submitted the question in mid-April to shed light on the impact of the Liberal government’s discriminatory values test on Manitoba’s communities.
The government’s response reads: “In Manitoba, 101 applications were deemed ineligible on the basis of submitting an incomplete application in relation to the attestation. The category the Department uses to track ineligibility in relation to the attestation does not solely track failure to sign the attestation, but also includes modified and removed attestations.”
“What we see from these numbers is that, at a minimum, 101 summer jobs that may have been created for students in our communities will not exist this summer,” Falk explained. “Since each individual applicant can request funding for several positions, the number of lost opportunities for Manitoba’s youth is likely much more significant.”
“It is inappropriate for a government – any government – to demand conformity to their beliefs as a condition of accessing funding,” Falk added. “The right to freedom of belief and opinion is guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Trudeau Liberals are failing to recognize that they’re violating the most fundamental principle of the Charter.”
The Canada Summer Jobs program provides federal funding to assist employers, including not-for-profit organizations, to create summer job opportunities for full-time students. This year, the Trudeau Liberals mandated that organizations applying for funding must sign off in agreement with certain Liberal Party values in order to receive approval. As a result, many students will be out of jobs this summer, and the organizations that were denied funding may not be able to help care for persons with disabilities, refugees or provide day camps for children in need.
