Finance Committee on March 25th, 2014

[Dr. Tammy Schirle]

Definitely.

I actually took the list that I created in my written brief...half of that comes from the budget 2014 document itself, proudly displaying many of those programs. The rest of it just comes from programs that I'm familiar with.

Each year I teach a tax policy class to my third-year undergraduate students. My first task with them is just getting them to tell me what they know about how heavily they are subsidized through our tax and transfer system. Most of my students have never done their own taxes. They certainly have no idea what is coming back to them from the tax system.

That just points to problem number one. They don't have the information. Either they don't seek it or they just don't know how to glean it from their tax files. It is a problem. It's difficult to find the information until you're already into the system. Even then, once you're there, we're not always fully aware of what we're getting.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Okay. So there are some things we could probably do on the communications side of things as well.

I just want to read something out of our 2013 budget. It says:

Create opportunities for apprentices by working with provinces and territories to examine the use of practical tests as a method of assessment and harmonize requirements, and by introducing measures that will support the use of apprentices through federal construction and maintenance contracts, the Investment in Affordable Housing and infrastructure projects.

Ms. Yalnizyan, aren't those exactly some of the types of things we should be doing? Do you see that as a positive aspect for developing our apprentices in Canada?

[Armine Yalnizyan]

Absolutely, and it would be really great to see that money flow and actually be used that way, because my understanding is that the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and some individual cities have been saying, “The money that you promised us in 2013? Can we find out, please, when we're going to get it and what it's going to be allocated for?” Similarly, affordable housing commitments have been made but not yet disbursed.

So as soon as that money starts flowing, I'm sure there is every intention to make good on the promise of hiring young people. I think that would be terrific. I think the money's there; there is that potential to use it.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

[Inaudible--Editor]...starting shortly.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you, Mr. Allen.

We'll go to Mr. Van Kesteren, please, for his round.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to all of you for appearing before us.

I want to quickly go to you, Ms. Lennox. I scanned your web page, and I have some questions, only because when we invite our guests here we really need stuff where we can go back and say, “Listen, this is the hard data. We found that.”

So you're a non-profit organization. Who funds you?

[Victoria Lennox]

We're industry-funded and we're membership-driven. Microsoft, Gowlings, Ernst & Young, and Intuit Canada are some of our sponsors. We're less than two years old. Startup Canada is a start-up.

We're about to have our second anniversary. Already, in less than two years, we're the most followed entrepreneurship organization in Canada, because there was a gap. There was nothing connecting the ecosystem nationwide, so we stepped in.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Do you try to identify young entrepreneurs and get them on their way?

[Victoria Lennox]

Exactly. We do that online and then on the ground. We have a network of 20 Startup communities right now. We actually have one in York Region. They connect entrepreneurs with mentors. If you have an idea, they'll tell you where to go.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

When I look at your web page, I see a whole list of people. These aren't obviously people...because they have earlier dates, much earlier dates. Do you have a track record of, let's say, 10, 20, or 100 people who are successful in their journey into starting a new business?

[Victoria Lennox]

Yes, absolutely. We have a network of more than 10,000 mentors, not to mention the 70,000 people who have been—

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

So that answers probably the next question too, which is that your expertise comes from people who are in the field, who have walked the walk, and who now will.... Okay. Good.

To Ms. Yalnizyan, you gave us some numbers on student debt. The numbers I'm getting are different. I just want to know where you're getting your numbers. From the numbers I have, student loans are dropping in actuality. That comes from the people who handle those loans, and I guess they get them from Stats Canada.

So if we're going to accept what you're telling the committee, I'd like to have a source. Perhaps you could provide the committee with that source as well.

[Armine Yalnizyan]

I'd be happy to do so. The numbers come from The Hill Times report that was released yesterday. There was a whole policy issue on youth that was released yesterday in The Hill Times.

I wrote to the reporter and asked him where he got his numbers from. He sent me the files that came from Employment and Social Development Canada. I'm happy to share those Excel files with you folks.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Who are they? Can you just tell the committee?

[Armine Yalnizyan]

Employment and Social Development Canada is your government.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Now, why would they contradict what Stats Canada is saying?

[Armine Yalnizyan]

I'm just telling you where I got the numbers and what I was quoting.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

We're going to get those numbers and we're going to look at those, because they don't jibe with the numbers that we have.

[Armine Yalnizyan]

As far as I know, actually, Statistics Canada does not measure on an annual basis student debt. So I might be incorrect, but I think ESDC is the source of it.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

It's important to have that. We certainly want to have it because the one problem that we see south of the border.... I don't want to look at others, but sometimes we can look at examples and it is alarming. I know that those are statistical. I want to make sure that the information that we have is statistical as well.

[Armine Yalnizyan]

That's fair.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Good.

I want to talk to you, Ms. Schirle. I want to talk about maybe some of your clients. We did an interesting study here back about three months ago on income inequality.

I used to work for an actuary and he used to tell me, “Dave, it's in the numbers, it's in the numbers.” One of the things that was striking was that one of the troubling statistics was that the immigrant population wasn't moving. It was, in fact, going down. Statistics Canada told us that back in the 1970s and 1980s it was the reversal. I asked them why, and they didn't have the information. I guess now they are going to mind that a little bit closer.

Another statistic that was interesting was one of experts said that they had found.... They had narrowed it down to three simple conclusions for young people to be successful: they needed a high school graduation at least, they were more successful when there was a life partner involved, and third, they don't do drugs or alcohol. I guess that's the other one.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

You have 30 seconds.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Have you found anything like that? Can you share that with the committee? Is that something that will skew some of the numbers as far as when we look at young people?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Just a brief response, please....