Blue Star Productions, the company behind the Discover Dinosaurs Tour that stopped at the CN Centre last week has now dropped the non-profit employment agency it used to source local staff.
Yesterday we revealed that several local homeless people were paid below minimum wage to work the event, and were having trouble getting their $50 a day pay after being promised cash on Monday.
In a public statement Friday, Blue Star said “the practices used by Helping Hands Resource Centre in Prince George did not meet our standards, causing BSP to end it’s working relationship with Helping Hands Resource Centre immediately.”
In an interview with the Director of Programming for Hand Hands on Wednesday, Ron Valle explained that they took payment from Blue Star, took a cut to fund their programs, and passed the rest onto staff as a “volunteer stipend”
“BSP happened to source out to a non-profit agency, who is trying to raise funds for their programs … They know that it is doing good, I’m assuming what they’re doing is choosing a non-profit to help give along the way, because the money they do provide pays for programs.”
Helping Hands is a Christian non-profit group out of Illinois that aims to help low income families and the homeless in the United States.
“We make it completely clear at the get go, that this is volunteer help that we are looking for.” Valle said “But I understand the equation where people say; ‘well you are providing volunteer workers for a for-profit organization.’”
When questioned about the ethics of targeting homeless people to volunteer in return for a stipend, Valle said that it’s not common practice for them.
“Generally we are not just using homeless shelters as a part of volunteer programs. We use colleges, and in fact we had some UNBC students come in a volunteer and donations were made to their school”
“I would like to have people willingly volunteer and help the community out but that’s very hard to get with volunteers because you do have to give them something for their food and time and energy that they put in.”
My PG Now has been able to verify that Helping Hands has mailed a number of cheques to the men staying at the Kesto Yoh mens shelter, paying them $50 a day.
In its statement Friday, Blue Stars said they “are working to ensure that the temporary employees hired by helping hands in Prince George are compensated to meet any applicable wage requirements.
The Discover Dinosaurs Tour is in Vancouver this weekend.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
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