Finance Committee on March 25th, 2014

[Victoria Lennox]

Accelerators, even more so than incubators, provide a place, just like a library or a community centre would, that attracts the public, a place where business and ideas happen. Insofar as accelerators and incubators reach out into the communities, connect to universities, connect to colleges, and bring young people into their facilities, they have an enormous potential to cultivate the next generation of entrepreneurs—getting these students working with start-ups, getting employed by start-ups, and then eventually starting their own company while they're in school or after they graduate. It's a hotbed activity that can really create collisions of innovation for these kids.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

“Collisions of innovation” is a good quote. Thank you.

What needs to be done to encourage more young Canadians to become business owners and entrepreneurs, especially when it helps to create jobs of tomorrow, and what is the economic growth and impact on social innovation?

[Victoria Lennox]

We work a lot with campuses. One of the challenges is that business and entrepreneurship reside only within the business school in many cases, whereas a welder can be entrepreneurial and start his or her own company, and so can a social science student and a journalist. They can be entrepreneurial and start their own consultancy. So what we really need to do is create peer networks of entrepreneurs on campus.

There is a lot of infrastructure going into enhancing commercialization, building out entrepreneurial programs, and advancing entrepreneurship research at the higher levels. But we need peer networks of entrepreneurial students, an entire nationwide campus network for young entrepreneurs, that is completely connected into CAIP, and completely connected into the incubators and accelerators.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

A peer network as well as mentors, I think, is—

[Victoria Lennox]

Mentors, absolutely.... When students connect into their Startup community, the community is filled with mentors who have been there and done that. There is a pay-it-forward culture. That's the beautiful thing about accelerators and incubators; there is that willingness to give back.

But right now the campuses are siloed.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Saxton.

We'll go to Mr. Brison, please.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to each of our witnesses for appearing before our committee today.

My first question is on summer jobs. In the last couple of years we've had some of the worst summer job numbers we've seen in about 40 years, yet the Canada summer jobs program, in the summer of 2013, created 36,000 jobs. Back in 2005 it created 78,000 jobs. The need is actually greater today, yet the Canada summer jobs program is creating fewer jobs.

Should we move as a committee and recommend to the government certainly to increase significantly the number of summer jobs created by the Canada summer jobs program?

[Pedro Antunes]

I think we're always conscious of the financial situation that the governments are in and that when we spend in one area we have to obviously take away from other areas.

Again, I think that in terms of job creation for youth, we certainly would prefer to see those jobs being created in the private sector and those opportunities come because the labour markets are better aligned.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Have you read the TD report by Martin Schwerdtfeger on this?

[Pedro Antunes]

Yes.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

It estimates a $23-billion cost to the Canadian economy over the next 18 years as a result of the “scarring” effect on young people not getting a good start. Would that not justify an increase in funding for student jobs in the short term?

[Pedro Antunes]

Not to say that I'm against funding, it's just that I think there are two sides to every spending program. If we're conscious of that and we feel it is a worthy place to spend, all the better. Certainly we're concerned about youth employment—and I've talked about that—and youth participation in the labour force.

I think Mr. Poschmann talked about the employment rates. I think we're seeing those down in both the 15- to 19-year-olds and the 20- to 24-year-old age cohorts, so I think it is important. But, again, we always caution about looking at the big picture when implementing new programs because these are costly.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Ms. Lennox.

[Victoria Lennox]

I just want to flag for you the Ontario summer company program. It's a really exciting program, so when the private sector can't mobilize fast enough in order to create jobs, then the kids can create jobs for themselves over the summer. It's a very small investment, with huge returns in terms of increasing the confidence of our young people.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Thank you, Ms. Lennox.

[Armine Yalnizyan]

I don't see why, if we can afford billions of dollars in promised tax cuts, we can't find a few hundred million dollars to expand summer job programs for Canadians and help the subsidiary levels of government, as I mentioned, to actually finance young people to do jobs that need to be done in our communities, whether that's servicing elderly or young people. It's a great time for them to get work experience and most of the people at this table probably benefited from a culture where they were supported with more support when they were trying to find jobs in the summer.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Lennox, the CFIB and CIBC Economics estimate that 50% of the small businesses in Canada will be sold over the next 10 years. CIBC Economics believes that to be a significant risk to the Canadian economy, driven by demographic changes.

Does this represent also an opportunity for us to create vehicles to help young people potentially become investors in, or buy, some of those businesses? Are we potentially seeing these two trend lines, the unprecedented transfer of small business capacity to another generation and this youth unemployment, creating an opportunity for us through public policy to facilitate that?

[Victoria Lennox]

Absolutely. When we went on our national tour, we met with many of Canada's top entrepreneurs. One of the top issues is succession. One of the top issues with succession is talent, and making sure these young people are equipped with the skills and networks they need in order to continue to grow the companies.

This is a huge opportunity for the next generation. Young entrepreneurs are not missing it. They're stepping up to grab it.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Finally, Mr. Antunes mentioned the issue of skilled trades. One of the things we may consider is a national campaign to restore the honour of skilled trades, such that people perceive them as being a worthy way to make a living, and also entrepreneurship, perhaps promoting both of those career tracks as being something people might think about earlier in life.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you, Mr. Brison.

We'll go now to Mr. Keddy, please.

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Welcome to our witnesses.

Ms. Yalnizyan, you made a comment that I think deserves to be picked up on, and that is the idea of reserving a portion of the jobs—actually, you said one-fifth of the jobs—on new infrastructure builds for youth employment or new workers. I think that actually has some merit. I think 20% might be high, and you'd have to work with companies and unions and workers to try to have some kind of a ratio in there, but it is a lot of government money. Whether it's public-private partnerships, or P3, it's still government money, so I think that is not a bad idea. I just wanted to make that comment.

My question is for Mr. Antunes and Ms. Schirle. I thought Mr. Brison would actually bring it up, because we both represent rural ridings in Nova Scotia. We both have a fair number of foreign workers who come in to do.... I think we do a disservice, quite frankly, by calling them “unskilled” jobs. Farm labour, agriculture jobs, Christmas tree industry jobs need a fair amount of skill, but you simply cannot fill those jobs with young people today. I think part of it is attitudinal. They think that job is somehow beneath them. I don't know how we change that.

I'd like to hear a recommendation.

[Pedro Antunes]

Maybe I'll let Ms. Schirle go first.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Ms. Schirle.

[Dr. Tammy Schirle]

Thank you.

I can perhaps make a quick comment. The key signal in the skills market is wages. If you let markets work, and if they seem to be working and there's a labour shortage, you will see wages rise. By bringing in such things as temporary worker programs, what we are often doing is preventing the market from working within Canada. We don't have an international labour market, so we don't need to try to go there.

So that's suppressing that wage signal. It's preventing young people from seeing that there is a signal that this is a job worth getting. That's something I think we should think about.

In terms of expectations, I do think this is something that is just.... Young people's expectations are often out of line with what is in the market. That's a matter of information not only for young people but also their parents. I see many students who think that other post-secondary education is beneath them, when obviously it isn't. That's a market failure that needs correcting: information.

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS]

Do we correct that in the high school system, or is it from the moment that child enters the school system straight on through? You're expected to come out, you're expected to have a job, and you're expected to contribute to society.

How do we fix that?