Summer jobs controversy reheats over posting calling to ‘stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline’

A B.C.-based non-profit group has received funding for a job to advocate against the Trans Mountain pipeline.

The Dogwood Initiative has a job posting for an organizing assistant who will “work directly with a Dogwood Provincial Organizer and the field organizing team to help our organizing network stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tanker project.”

The position is funded by the Canada Summer Jobs program.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer used the revelation to lead off Wednesday’s question period with a barrage of questions about the pipeline.

“The prime minister has signed off on a grant that will go specifically to hire an assistant who will ‘work directly with the provincial organizer and the field organizing team to help our network stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline,”‘ Scheer told the Commons, quoting from Dogwood’s online call for job applications.

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“Does he not realize that he is funding the very groups that are protesting against the project that is in the national interest?”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, however, says the group also received funding from the previous Conservative government under then-prime minister Stephen Harper.

Kai Nagata of the Dogwood Initiative said it has received funding for summer jobs focusing on public outreach for years.

He said this year’s job posting was similar to ones in the past, adding that they “literally copy and paste the application” for funding “year in and year out.”

“We received funding continuously for six straight years under the previous government and we were never under that impression that it was a political matter,” Nagata said.

He added that the organization received funding from the Harper government to advocate against the Enbridge Northern Gateway project.

“The federal government under Harper was quite vociferous about Enbridge Northern Gateway and that never affected the approval of the Canada Summer Jobs grant,” Nagata said.

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The government has been under fire of late over the program, specifically a new requirement that organizations must declare their support for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including women’s reproductive rights.

“Students canvassing on issues that are of interest to British Columbians is something that governments of all stripes have supported on many different issues,” Nagata said.

“I think it’s unfortunate that the program is being politicized.”

— With files from The Canadian Press