Human Resources committee  Absolutely, the workplace today not only requires literacy but also numeracy, computer skills, and the new technology. While they are capable of learning, they don't come to the door with those skills in play. For older workers, there is a need for transitional funding, to make

Human Resources committee  There is certainly a critical mass of people who want that flexibility and who can accommodate it in their retirement plans, because they have a company pension, or they have other resources and want to wind down, or they want to see their grandchildren more. There's certainly a

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. When we were dealing with the issue of mandatory retirement in the federal legislation, it became obvious that New Brunswick was the only province in which the law permitted a pension plan to actually require mandatory retirement, and the law allowed that. Nova Scoti

Human Resources committee  The leadership role shown by removing it at the federal level is one. Unfortunately, this is provincial legislation. Pensions are governed by provincial legislation in this case, so they have the final say there.

Human Resources committee  We haven't followed that specific issue as much, but obviously we would have to see where the impact is. As I said earlier, we're focusing on getting people jobs rather than focusing on the training.

Human Resources committee  One thing we got back from our members and people who call us was the question: training for what? Of course, there needs to be training, and indeed in this recent budget there was announced a job grants program, which redirected some of the training funding into areas targeted t

Human Resources committee  But the way it's described, an employer has to choose an employee whom he or she wants to train, put their own money up, and then obtain matching federal and provincial funds. If you look at our situation where older workers already find barriers to staying and getting new jobs,

Human Resources committee  In actual fact, for the 55-plus group, both men and women are participating in the workforce more than they did in the past. There was an increase...I think there was more of a steady increase for women than for men rejoining the workforce. I don't see the explanation for that

Human Resources committee  We haven't drilled down to quite that granular level. That's something that Third Quarter, with its funding, would be well suited to do, given that that's what they're targeting. As I say, their biggest contribution to this point is to round up the employers who are interested in

Human Resources committee  We can cross-tab last weekend's poll to get at those answers. We don't have an absolute answer for you. All I can say is that on a gross basis this was the answer. We see more people who in the past would have already retired going back into the workforce in larger numbers, to t

Human Resources committee  Yes, but some of it was done. There was the expert panel on older workers that reported in 2010 or 2009, I believe—I'm not absolutely certain, because nothing was done with the report. Much of the research in that report is work that we're relying on now. All of the issues that I

Human Resources committee  Well, show us the money. That's the bottom line. When we asked them questions about what they would like, such as more dignity or special programs, they just said to get them the money they need to actually get a peaceful retirement, a structured retirement, and also to extend

Human Resources committee  In fact, we do ask the fiscal accountability question a lot, the fiscal responsibility question, on various and sundry things, whether it be health care.... Of course, everybody wants more services and so on. The responses by our members are always twofold. They don't reject payi

Human Resources committee  Fewer older workers or fewer workers, period?

Human Resources committee  One of the trends that has hit older workers particularly hard, and it is addressed somewhat by the targeted initiative for older workers, is one-industry towns where people are working and then the entire industry shuts and they are not trained for anything else and no other job