Response from William Amos, MP for Pontiac, concerning the Canada Summer Jobs Program
Response from William Amos, MP for Pontiac, concerning the Canada Summer Jobs Program
Response from William Amos, MP for Pontiac, concerning the Canada Summer Jobs Program;
The Government’s Canada Summer Jobs program gives valuable summer work experience to tens of thousands of students each year by providing wage subsidies to employers who apply for funding. Since taking office, our government has doubled the funding for this program to support our local economy and help young Canadians gain the experience they need to succeed in the job market. In the federal riding of Pontiac, this equates to an additional $320,000 per summer for a total of $647,474 that is invested directly into youth job creation.
This year, misleading information was published implying that religious or faith-based organizations are ineligible for Canada Summer Jobs funding. Let me set the record straight: churches, religious and faith-based organizations were encouraged, welcome and eligible to apply for Canada Summer Jobs funding.
This year, the application process included an attestation that both the job and the organization’s core mandate respect individual human rights in Canada, including the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as other rights. The organizations “mandate” would be similar to the description of “ongoing programs” that they provide to the Canada Revenue Agency at tax time, which focuses on what the organization does in a given year. Individual human rights are respected when an organization’s primary activities, and the job responsibilities, do not seek to remove or actively undermine these existing rights. For example, a faith-based organization with anti-abortion beliefs that operates a summer camp for disadvantaged youth who applied for funding to hire students as camp counselors. The students would be responsible for developing programs for the youth, including leadership and skills development. This organization would have been be eligible to apply.
Faith-based groups provide tremendous value to our communities. My staff and I were in contact with a number of faith-based organizations in the riding this year to reassure them about their eligibility and to encourage them to apply for CSJ funding. Seven religious organizations from our riding applied for funding through the CSJ program this year. This was exactly the same number as applied in 2017. It is therefore incorrect to indicate that the attestation prevented religious groups from applying to the CSJ program or that it discriminated against them in any way.
