Finance committee  I will underline the three crucial elements of a federal strategy designed to improve youth employment. First, there are the working conditions for young people in the workforce. Then, jobs have to be created, meaning that the conditions have to be re-created where all parties, e

Finance committee  It does. I am the Canadian co-chair of the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council. We have noticed that employment insurance reform acts as an obstacle to young people coming into the job market, in tourism specifically, because it is a highly seasonal industry. We have condu

Finance committee  It is going to drive down the quality of jobs in the tourism industry. There was a lot of talk about qualified jobs, jobs for young people with trades. It is certainly going to disqualify the industry, which will become a kind of employment prison, if this is all about having the

Finance committee  —you are aging and you have nothing except the public pension fund.

Finance committee  By having a mandatory one.... Right now what we're seeing across the board is that most employees don't contribute if employers do not, or employers contribute only if the employee does. It's voluntary. At 25 years old, you want a Camaro, a red car. You don't want to have a pensi

Finance committee  Well, it's not enough. The Canadian pension fund or the Quebec one is not enough to ensure you have a secure revenue when you retire at 67. What we're asking for is that it be mandatory in Canada for employers to contribute to an RRSP, or to a defined benefit pension plan, at lea

Finance committee  Okay, it's a tripartite one. Employees would have to contribute mandatorily. It's not a voluntary RRSP, where you put in 2%; you go to TD and invest it, or whatever. Someone does invest your money. Employers would have to contribute and, of course, government, federal or provinci

Finance committee  Absolutely. The federal government commissioned the Arthurs Report in 2006. It observed a huge disparity in the treatment of young workers in Canada. The report even recommended amending Part III of the Canada Labour Code. All over the country, we see a lot of disparities in t

Finance committee  In Canada, we are seeing that defined benefit plans are in danger. More and more employers are getting out of plans of that kind, or, if they are keeping them, only those hired by a specific date or having full-time employment can have access to them. As a result, young workers e

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My thanks to the Standing Committee on Finance for inviting us to talk about youth employment this afternoon. The Confédération des syndicats nationaux is a union organization representing more than 300,000 workers across Canada, mostly in Quebec, but also

Finance committee  What I would support is a government that supports a strong middle class, working in a good economy in which productivity is high, with highly trained skilled workers and a social environment that provides good working conditions for people: the right to organize, the right to ne

Finance committee  I am middle class, and taxes are good. Taxes allow us to have good schools and good universities, hospitals, roads. It is taxes that do that, and I'm in favour of that.

Finance committee  Oh, I am answering your question—

Finance committee  Oh, yes, I am. Israel has had massive human rights violations in Palestine against the Palestinians, and we've been denouncing them for decades. That is a historical statement from our organization, and I will sustain that.

Finance committee  Absolutely, sir. I was in Calgary last weekend with my federal correctional officer and I saw what happened at the convention. There was a union-bashing process there, with more than 15 resolutions voted on and debated on the floor—