Human Resources Committee on Nov. 24th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Okay. We won't let you put further questions.

Answer the questions that were posed, if you wish, and then we'll close.

[Karen Jackson]

Right.

The second thing I would say is yes, at this point we are having higher volumes of calls coming into our EI call centres. These vary by week, by month, and by season of the year, but it is quite accurate to say that we are having high volumes at the moment, and there are...on average, about 50% of the calls do not get through to an agent the first time they try.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Thank you.

Ms. Leitch, your time is going to be really short. I'd like to adjourn about three minutes before 4:30 as we have some business to complete, so try to make it a short question.

And perhaps a short answer...?

Go ahead.

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

In our next turnaround, I'm looking forward to having Mr. Cuzner's time.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

I'd like to thank the ministers and their officials for coming in today to discuss the supplementary estimates.

Over the course of the last year, there has been a lot of attention on labour disputes. I know that the Minister of Labour has often referred to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the work they do to try to prevent work stoppages and assist parties in these labour disputes.

The supplementary estimates indicate that there's been an expansion of the mediation services program. Can the minister please tell the committee a little bit about what the supplemental funding will be used for and how it will assist mediation and conciliation to be more efficient?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Thank you very much. I really appreciate the question because I'm very excited about the program.

First of all, in a time of constraint, it's always nice to see that we're investing in something, and we are able to invest in something that's going to really pay off in the long run. It's a million dollars over the next two years and then $500,000 a year after that. What it allows us to do in the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service is to develop workshops and programming and to be able to intervene at an early stage, before we get to that point of dispute between the two parties.

I'll give you a few examples. In the case of Nav Canada in the 1990s, labour relations were very confrontational and very unproductive. That caused a lot of difficulties at work and a lack of productivity, but we were able, with them, to have a number of joint union-management preventative mediation workshops delivered as part of their labour relations improvement strategy. Since then, Nav Canada and its union partners have become models--absolute models--of effective labour relations. You can see that the proof is in the pudding.

On what the service is going to do, effectively, they're planning 35 preventative mediation workshops in 2010-11, as compared to 45 workshops in 2009-10. A reduction in the delivery of workshops took place in light of an increased workload and complexity. So far, as of April 1, 2011, FMCS has provided 37 training sessions and also other assistance, including piloting of its new generic workshop in the Atlantic region to help the folks on the east coast as they go into negotiations with the longshoremen's union.

Thank you very much for the question.

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Thank you very much, Minister.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

I think this might be a good time for us to break. We have to deal with the estimates themselves.

I'd like to thank both ministers for appearing and answering the questions and the officials for being here as well.

I won't suspend. I'll just give our witnesses an opportunity to leave.

We have a couple of matters of business that we want to take care of today.

First of all, with respect to the estimates themselves.... I'm not sure if Mr. Cuzner has left...? No? He's still here. With respect to the estimates, there are a couple of things. As you will note, we have to vote on the supplementary estimates themselves: votes 1b, 5b, and 7b. HUMAN RESOURCES AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENTVote 1b--Operating expenditures....$9,684,803

Vote 5b--The grants listed in the Estimates and contributions..........$6,997,705

Vote 7b--Pursuant to subsection 25(2) of the Financial Administration Act, to write-off from the Accounts of Canada 61,791 debts due to Her Majesty in right of Canada amounting to $149,541,766 related to Canada Student Loans accounts..........$149,541,766

(Votes 1b, 5b and 7b agreed to)

Shall I report the supplementary estimates (B) to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

All those in favour? Opposed? Consider it done.

I have one other matter I want to mention to the committee. The clerk tells me that she's had difficulty in getting the witnesses for the second hour on Thursday next. What I was going to suggest to her is that she move some of the other witnesses further down the road for that second hour so that on December 13, rather than having that particular meeting, we might be able to finish one meeting sooner by giving the instructions then. Does anyone have any objections to that course of action?

Go ahead.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

We have a number of witnesses that we've submitted. I'm not sure this will work.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

The point of the matter is that we won't have anything. We can adjourn next week on Thursday an hour early or we can ask the clerk to fill it through either—

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

I'm not objecting to having the clerk fill that time and moving witnesses up. I'm just saying that I'm not sure we'll be able to do away with the meeting on the 13th.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

We may not. We'll open it up for the possibility or the eventuality for that to happen.

Is anybody opposed to that?

If not, then I'll adjourn. Thank you.