Josh Mandryk appears before standing committee on CSSG
Josh Mandryk questions Canada Student Service Grant at standing committee on finance
Josh Mandryk appeared before the federal Standing Committee on Finance to discuss the Canada Student Service Grant. He raised questions about the structure of the CSSG, noting that it raises legal concerns about whether students are volunteers or paid employees.
You can watch Josh’s submissions by clicking on this photo:
Watch the entire committee proceedings here.
The Huffington Post also reported on the proceedings:
Also at the committee, Josh Mandryk, a labour and class actions lawyer at Goldblatt Partners LLP, said the CSSG has “serious design flaws that give rise to the exploitation and to the potential misclassification of students and recent graduates.”
Mandryk said the CSSG would put “onerous” demands on participating students, who would have to volunteer about 27 hours per week during the June-October program to be eligible for the full $5,000. That would increase to around 50 hours per week if students wanted to finish volunteering before their classes start in September, he said.
The best way to salvage the problem, Mandryk said, would be to remove the mandatory volunteer requirement and convert the positions into paid jobs through the Canada Summer Jobs program, and to expand and build up the CESB to be more like the CERB.