Human Resources Committee on May 5th, 2009

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB]

We talk about 1965. It's been 40 years since this has been updated, so clearly in my view stakeholders should have thought about it quite a bit in that time.

We've launched public consultations. While they are a little bit shorter than normal public consultations, I think the stakeholders we've spoken to understand that most of the amendments they're seeking they've been looking at for quite some time. My hope is we'll have this completed by summer.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

We're almost out of time, but I have one question from Mr. Savage and one question from Ms. Minna, and that will wrap up our time here today.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be very quick.

I just want to get back to Minister Ambrose very quickly on the question of the artists, producers, professionals, and the board. I don't think it's a question, Minister, of the chair, because it says very clearly here that the tribunal's ability to meet its commitment depends on a sufficient number of members being appointed to ensure quorum to hear cases. It continues to talk about the board doing its best, but that it will be hampered by not having a quorum.

So it's not an issue of a chair; it's an issue of not having enough members.

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB]

At this point, I believe, there's an acting chair--

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Yes, and it's the acting chair who is saying this.

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB]

--who is also a board member. But you're correct that they need three board members to have quorum.

I believe at this point they have one case in front of them. We are looking at CVs right now, to replace those vacancies. It's a question of quorum at this point, but I believe there is one case in front of them.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

I understand that.

Are there only three members on the board?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB]

I believe they need three board members to have a quorum. I can get that information for you. But we are aware of the vacancies and we are taking CVs to fill those vacancies.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

Mr. Savage.

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Thank you, Chair.

Minister Finley, your government seemed to be caught off guard by the increased number of claimants for EI. This is an issue I raised in the House on November 27, and I sent you a letter on December 19.

A couple of months later you announced that $60 million was going to be allocated to make sure that people had their EI claims processed. Maybe you can give us some information, if not here, then later, on the status of that $60 million--how you're hiring people, the process for hiring them. Does that need Treasury Board approval, has that been given, when was that given? Can we get some information on that?

The estimates seemed to indicate that EI administration costs are going to go down, and then the $60 million came in after the fact. I wonder if you could give us some information on that $60 million.

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

You're right. There has been a significant increase in the number of EI applications that we've been receiving, unfortunately. In fact, in the first three months of this calendar year--January, February, March--we saw an increase of almost 50% in the number of applications we had to process.

That's why we took action early to try to staff up. We brought people back from other departments. We engaged new people. So far we've brought on 900 additional personnel to deal with this significant increase in demand. We are also in the process of hiring another 400 people. We're streamlining processes. We're working with companies to do electronic filing, because that's much faster and much more accurate.

We want to make sure that those who are unfortunate and lose their jobs do get the benefits that they deserve, get the options to which they're entitled explained to them, in a very timely manner.

This is a really appropriate opportunity to thank those people who have been working on expanding the EI program from a policy point of view, and those who have been working on the front lines. We've expanded the hours of our service call centres to include weekends and hours later in the day. There are a lot of individuals working for HRSD through Service Canada who really are going the extra mile right now to help Canadians in their time of need, and I personally would like to say thank you to them. They've been maintaining their accuracy standards and they've kept us pretty much on track with our delivery standards, which we're also increasing so that we can meet the needs of Canadians.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

I want to thank both Minister Finley and Minister Ambrose for being here today, and of course your departmental people.

We're going to suspend for a couple of minutes so the witnesses can depart, and we'll resume in two to three minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Members, perhaps you would come back to the table now. We have a couple of things to take care of.

First, we need to vote on the main estimates.

HUMAN RESOURCES AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT Department Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$586,927,000

Shall vote 1, less the amount voted in interim supply, carry?

(Vote 1 agreed to)

Vote 5—Grants and contributions..........$1,443,460,000 Canada Industrial Relations Board Vote 10—Program expenditures..........$11,122,000 Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Vote 15—To reimburse Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation for the amounts of loans forgiven, grants, contributions and expenditures made, and losses, costs and expenses incurred under the provisions of the National Housing Act or in respect of the exercise of powers or the carrying out of duties or functions conferred on the Corporation pursuant to the authority of any Act of Parliament of Canada other than the National Housing Act, in accordance with the Corporation’s authority under the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Act..........$2,044,709,000 Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal Vote 20—Program expenditures..........$1,840,000 Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Vote 25—Program expenditures..........$3,828,000

Shall votes 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25, less the amounts voted in interim supply, carry?

(Votes 5 to 25 inclusive agreed to)

Shall I report the main estimates of 2009-2010 to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much. That takes care of the issue of estimates.

I have a couple of things on the list that we want to talk about. The first one has to do with travel. We had approval for up to six members to travel to Calgary. I just want to confirm the list so that the appropriate travel arrangements can be made.

I'm assuming, Mr. Martin, that of course you're going.

Mr. Savage, I know you're going.

I know I'm going.

Mr. Lessard, are you going, or someone from your party, to the Calgary conference, the CCSD conference?

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

Yes, Mr. Chair.

I might not be able to go because of a previous engagement. If so, I will let you know whether someone else will be going in my place. I should be able to tell you in the next few days.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

So then my next question becomes, since we got approval for up to six from the committee, are there any other members who may like to attend?

Ms. Minna? Okay. Let's talk to the clerk afterwards, and then you're more than welcome to attend.

As we've said, we had approval for up to six, and certainly if we can send up to six that would be great. I'll also extend the same offer to anyone else. We can talk offline afterwards.

The reason for asking is that the clerk is now booking the hotel and doing registration. I'll just remind everyone that we're flying on our points, but hotel and registration will be covered by the committee. You will need to book your own flights.

Mike, and then Tony.

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

I just want to ask if you've had any further discussion, or members have had further discussion, with CCSD about our panel. I know that I talked to Peggy Taillon from CCSD, but I just wondered if there was any more formal communication on that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Yes, I was contacted by Peggy as well, who had indicated that we were going to have a place there. There will be sort of an open forum discussion, with a chance for us to also comment and of course to recognize the fact that our committee's doing work on the poverty issue right now. Of course, another panel will be there as well.

I think the set-up looks good. I don't think there'll be a lot that we have to do, but I think we'll probably be consulted from time to time. I feel comfortable with what they've suggested.

Tony.

[Tony Martin, NDP, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

I just wanted to let the clerk know that I've registered and also booked my accommodation.

Will I just submit that to you afterwards? Is that appropriate?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Yes, definitely. Thanks, Tony.

The other thing is Toronto. Although we don't need to have the list today, perhaps people could think about that. I know that I've asked Madame Folco to chair the meeting for me. She'll be chairing the Toronto portion, so we just need to know who is going to be able to come. It's June 1 and 2, the Monday and Tuesday.

Perhaps we could get those names. If we don't know who they are now, that's fine.

We still need to have one Liberal; I think, Ms. Minna, you were planning on coming.

Tony, is it going to be you?

Mr. Lessard, we just need to know who from your party will attend, whether it's going to be you or Madame Beaudin.

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

It will be Ms. Beaudin.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

And to the Conservatives, do we know who is planning on attending? If you don't know, that's okay, but we need to get that information. If we don't have it today, try to forward that to the clerk so that they can book rooms and make the necessary arrangements.

I have one more thing, and then we're going to talk about witnesses.

Mike, do you want to talk again about what's happening on Thursday, just to give us an update?

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

On Thursday, our committee is hearing from people in the disabilities community about poverty and disability. It's also the day that CPA and other organizations have designated as the day that there are going to be some MPs in wheelchairs. I did this last year. I had the honour of chairing the committee last year. Other MPs have been asked.

I've submitted some names from this committee, including that of the chair. I'm not sure why that hasn't been arranged. I'll be in a wheelchair and we'll be dealing with some of this. There's a wonderful magazine that's come out from the CPA, with Steven Fletcher and me on the cover, and it's generating an awful lot of excitement.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thanks, Mike.

There's one last thing we have to cover.

Tony, I know that you wanted to talk a bit about witnesses for Halifax. Go ahead. The floor is yours.