Businesses and workers in Canada were not the only ones badly affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic but also students and recent graduates.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday, June 25, acknowledged that a lot of internship and community service placements have been cancelled and that there are fewer job offerings for these students and fresh graduates due to the pandemic. To help these individuals, Trudeau announced the launch of the government’s Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG) to help them “gain valuable experience while also contributing to their communities.”
Under the program, college or university students or recent graduates who will be volunteering this summer will be paid from $1,000 to $5,000, depending on the number of hours they completed between June 25 and October 31.
“Students are facing unique challenges this summer due to the pandemic. At the same time, many are wondering how they can help in the fight against COVID-19,” Trudeau said.
“The reality is, there aren’t as many student jobs as there were last year. And, without a job, it’s hard to pay tuition or everyday expenses,” he added.
Those who wish to take part in the program must be 30 years old or younger and must be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident, or a student with refugee status. They must also be enrolled in and attending a college or university in the spring, summer, or fall of 2020.
Those who graduated since December 2019 or are studying abroad but currently living in Canada can also join the program.
Participants must register by August 21 and submit completed applications no later than November 6.
Aside from the CSSG, the Canadian government also launched the I Want to Help platform that can help post-secondary students and recent graduates look for not-for-profit organizations where they can render their services.
Trudeau also announced that the government will be investing $40-million to create 5,000 internships through Mitacs, a non-profit organization that partners with universities and industries.
“Usually, Mitacs caters to Master’s or PhD research students, but with the funding we’re announcing today, they’ll expand their internship opportunities to undergraduate students and students in professional programs like law, medicine, or business,” Trudeau said.
The government will also invest in Canada Summer Jobs for the creation of 10,000 new job placements for individuals between the ages of 15 and 30 years, and another 20,000 job placements for post-secondary students in high-demand sectors through the Students Work Placement Program.
Moreover, Trudeau said they will be investing in the Digital Skills for Youth (DS4Y) program and the Computers for Schools Plus (CFS+) program.
The CSSG, I Want to Help platform, as well as the funding for Mitacs, DS4Y, and CFS+ are included in the nearly $9-billion plan announced by the government in April to help the Canadian students.
The Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB), a program that provides financial support to eligible students from May to August, is also part of the billion-worth budget.
“Innovation is becoming increasingly essential to the global economy. If we want to build a strong and resilient economy, we have to invest in the next generation,” Trudeau said.
While others welcome the announcement, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) expressed disappointment as students will be unlikely to receive the full grant, won’t be able to count their hours retroactively, and that not all of them can be participants of the program.
Due to the delay in the launching of the CSSG, the CFS said students will have to work for an average of 27.8 hours per week until October 31 to receive the full $5,000 grant. Those who have been volunteering since April could not also claim those hours towards the grant since the hours that will be counted will start from June 25.
“This is yet another example of the problems with the patchwork approach to financial aid that the Federal Government has taken during the pandemic,” CFS National Deputy Chairperson Nicole Brayiannis said.
They also condemned the ineligibility of international students, who, they said, make up nearly 30 percent of the number of post-secondary students in Canada, in the CESB, Canada Summer Jobs program, and the CSSG.
“The federal government continues to show that despite the fact that international students contribute billions of dollars to the economy each year, they are deemed not worthy of the same support as their domestic counterparts,” CFS National Chairperson Sofia Descalzi said.
Like any other student, Descalzi said international students have been “hard hit” by the pandemic and are in “an especially vulnerable situation.”
“There has been a complete lack of empathy and care afforded to them throughout this crisis,” she stressed.
Conservative employment critic Dan Albas and Conservative youth critic Raquel Dancho also criticized the late launch of the CSSG, saying that the Federal government has been “slow to act.”