Mr. Speaker, our top priorities are job creation, economic growth and long-term prosperity for Canadians.
Our government remains committed to providing temporary income support to unemployed Canadians who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own while they look for work or upgrade their skills.
However, if there is one thing that we should do better, it is matching Canadians with the jobs that are available in their communities.
We need to ensure that Canadians have access to and are skilled enough for the jobs that are being created. Full-time jobs have been increasing across many occupations and many industries. In fact, from July 2009 to May 2012, employment grew by more than 770,000 jobs. This represents the strongest growth by far among G7 countries. Of these 770,000 jobs, 90,000 are full-time positions. Statistics Canada indicates there were 250,000 job vacancies across the country last month.
What are we going to do to help unemployed Canadians find jobs?
Our government is committed to making targeted common-sense changes to the EI program that encourage Canadians to stay active in the job market either by working or looking for jobs and removing disincentives to work.
We will provide enhanced labour market information to claimants to support their job search efforts, including enhanced online job alerts. EI recipients will now get job postings twice a day for those chosen occupations within their community, as well as postings for jobs in related occupations in other geographic regions. This will enable them to make more informed decisions about how to conduct their job search.
We will also strengthen and clarify what is required of claimants who are receiving EI regular benefits. The definition of “suitable employment” will be based on a number of criteria, such as working conditions, hours of work and commuting time. Personal circumstances will also be taken into account. EI claimants will not be expected to take a job that is hazardous to their health or physically difficult for them to perform.
Many employers have said that they are facing significant skills and labour shortages and they need to have access to temporary foreign workers.
The government will ensure better coordination with the temporary foreign worker program and the EI program. We want to ensure that Canadians who are available and have the right skills have the first crack at these jobs. It only makes sense.
For people who are unable to find employment either because opportunities do not exist or they are not reasonably matched, EI will continue to be there for them as it always has been in the past.