Finance Committee on Oct. 20th, 2017

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

As the witnesses certainly know, these are the consultations in advance of the 2018 budget. We welcome the witnesses for panel two in Toronto.

You'll see members looking at their iPads from time to time. For those who presented a submission prior to the early August deadline, those submissions are on members' iPads. They are part of the consideration for the budget. I think we received 423 submissions.

I notice a couple of members are not in the room yet, so before we start, I would ask members to introduce themselves to kind of give everyone a tenor of where we are from across the country. This is a subcommittee of the finance committee. We don't travel with the full committee.

I'm Wayne Easter, a member of Parliament from Prince Edward Island. My riding is Malpeque. If you eat any of those Malpeque oysters that we ship to Toronto, they come from my riding. They're good for your health and vitality. The riding stretches from Summerside to Charlottetown.

We'll start with Ms. O'Connell, who has a Toronto riding.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Hello. I am Jennifer O'Connell, the member of Parliament for Pickering-Uxbridge.

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

My name is Greg Fergus. I am the member for Hull—Aylmer, a riding in Outaouais, Quebec, just outside Ottawa.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

My name is Tom Kmiec, the member of Parliament for Calgary Shepard.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Hello everyone. My name is Dan Albas. I'm from Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola in the interior of British Columbia.

I'm very happy to be with you today and look forward to learning something.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

There's no wine produced there at all, I suppose.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

No oysters, though.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Well, look. We have the country covered—oysters and wine together, Dan.

We'll start with the witnesses.

Donald Johnson, you're first.

[Donald Johnson, O.C., LL.D. Volunteer Board Member of Not-for-Profit Organizations, As an Individual]

First, I'd like to thank the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance for inviting me to participate in this important pre-budget consultation hearing in Toronto.

As you may know, since the capital gains tax on gifts of listed securities was removed in the 2006 budget, charities have received over $1 billion in gifts of stock virtually every year since 2006. We have another proposal that would unlock more private wealth for public good.

Our proposal is that the government should remove the capital gains tax on charitable donations of private company shares and real estate, the same tax treatment that applies to gifts of listed securities. This measure would stimulate a $200-million annual increase in charitable donations and is much more tax effective than direct government spending.

In summary, if the owner of private company shares or real estate sold his or her assets to an arm's-length party and donated all or a portion of the cash proceeds to a registered charity within 30 days, he or she would be exempt from capital gains taxes. The condition that the sale would have to be to an arm's-length party addresses any concern about valuation abuse. The forgone capital gains tax on these donations to the federal government is only $55 million to $60 million per annum, and the charitable donation tax credit is the same as for gifts of cash.

Before we focus on why this measure would help achieve your committee's objectives of enhancing our country's productivity and competitiveness, it is important to note that the middle class are the primary beneficiaries of this proposal. They would all benefit from the increased funding allotted to our hospitals, universities, social service agencies, and arts and cultural organizations across Canada. Other beneficiaries would include the 2.1 million Canadians who are employed by our not-for-profit sector, the majority of whom are members of the middle class.

This measure would certainly help Canadians be more productive. Education and training provided by our universities and colleges would help make our students live more productive lives. Medical treatment provided by our hospitals helps ensure that patients with health issues return to the workforce as quickly as possible and be more productive. Research divisions in our universities and hospitals play an important role in innovation and help us be more competitive. There is a limit to which the federal and provincial governments can provide research support. Private sector donations play a key role in the purchase of cutting-edge technology equipment and provide funding for research support so that we can attract and retain the brightest talent.

These research programs often lead to the creation of new products that strengthen Canada's competitive position internationally. Entrepreneurs play an important role in growing our economy, with a focus on innovation, creating new products, and strengthening our competitive position.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, CFIB, which represents 109,000 private companies, is strongly supportive of this proposal.

Our main competitor for attracting the best talent is the United States, where gifts of appreciated capital property are exempt from capital gains taxes. These include donations of listed securities, private company shares, and real estate.

We urge your committee to recommend to the House of Commons that this measure be introduced as soon as possible. Millions of Canadians across Canada would be very grateful. It would be a great legacy for your government to leave for current and future generations.

That concludes my remarks. I'd be happy to respond to any questions.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you very much, Donald.

Turning to Bruce Power, we have Mr. Scongack. I might not have your name right.

[James Scongack, Vice-President, Corporate Affairs and Environment, Bruce Power]

That's close enough. Thanks very much for having me. By way of introduction, my name is James Scongack. I'm vice-president of corporate affairs and environment for Bruce Power.

I'll tell you a little about Bruce Power, even though it's in the pre-budget submission we made in August. Bruce Power operates the largest operating nuclear facility in the world. It's located in rural southwestern Ontario. We're a private sector operator, owned by OMERS pension plan and TransCanada Corporation. There are two unions on site, which represent 90% of our employees: the Power Workers' Union, and the Society of Energy Professionals.

A majority of our employees are individual owners in the business. We are a unique public-private partnership. The assets we operate are owned by the Province of Ontario. As a company, we're responsible for all investment in those assets. We're responsible for all long-term liabilities related to those assets. We sell the electricity that we generate over a controlled contract with Ontario's independent electricity system operator.

The reasons we're presenting before you today is that, for our energy sector to continue to be world leading, it is very important to recognize the environment we continue to operate in. In Canada, the jurisdiction of nuclear power is split between the federal and provincial governments.

The federal government is responsible for three key elements as it relates to Canada's nuclear industry. The first is the independent regulatory oversight of the industry from a safety, environmental, and public health perspective. The second is related to Canada's international obligations. The third is the tremendous amount of work the Government of Canada does with the International Atomic Energy Agency, where nuclear plants from across the world share expertise and knowledge. Then the policy as to the role of nuclear and the economics of it are at the provincial level. Maintaining strength at both the provincial and federal levels around those key responsibilities is very important for our industry.

If we look at Canada's energy sector from an electricity generation perspective, we see that we have two or three fundamental building blocks that drive our electricity sector in Canada. In western Canada and in some provinces in eastern Canada, there is a very significant oil and gas sector. A number of provinces—British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, and Newfoundland—have major hydroelectric resources. Provinces such as Ontario and New Brunswick have a heavy reliance on nuclear power. In fact, today, nuclear power is generating 65% of our electricity in Ontario and doing it at a cost well below the average cost of electricity in the province.

Our organization is a key driver of economic growth in Ontario, supporting middle-class jobs and families across the province. Our operation, directly and indirectly, employs 22,000 people in Ontario, not only at our site in rural southwestern Ontario but also in communities throughout the province. This represents about $4 billion in annual economic activity. We are planning a $13-billion investment program over the course of the next 20 years that will take the life of our site to 2064. It is one of the largest single infrastructure projects in Canada. That is important because we are investing now in what the future of Canada's nuclear industry is going to look like by establishing power reactors that are going to be there for many decades to come.

Canada has a very strong tradition of leading the world when it comes to safe, reliable electricity generated from nuclear power. More important, one of the new streams of effort that is being opened up by our nuclear industry in Ontario—and it ties to our national profile and international stature—is our heavy investment in medical isotope production. Bruce Power is one of the world's largest suppliers of cobalt-60. Cobalt-60 is a type of isotope exported through Nordion, an Ottawa-based company, all over the world. If you've ever gone into a doctor's office, you expect swabs, needles, and everything to be absolutely sterilized. All of that is sterilized with cobalt-60 generated right here in Ontario.

More recently, you'll be aware that the Chalk River facility will be closing its research reactor on March 31, 2018. That will cease the production of what we call “high specific activity cobalt”. I hope none of you have had the unfortunate experience of having a family member challenged with a brain tumour, but there is new technology to tackle brain tumours around the world called “gamma knife”. Essentially, it prevents a surgical procedure because you can use radiological beams to shrink a tumour. We're going to now be the world's largest producer of that HSA cobalt from our site.

I'm probably over my three-minute limit, Mr. Chair, but you have our submission.

The one final thing I would leave you with is that for us to be successful as a business, it's really important that there be an independent regulator that is very well respected, not only in the international community but here domestically.

I can tell you, having travelled throughout the world representing our industry, that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has one of the best reputations you'll see out there in the international regime, and that provides us regulatory certainty and stability. That's very important for our investments. That's something that spans across party lines, and spans across governments. Whether under the Liberal government of 20 years ago, the Harper government, or now the Trudeau government, the strength of Canada's regulatory regime is something we should all be very proud of.

I'll leave my comments there, Mr. Chair, and I'd be delighted to take any questions you may have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you very much.

We turn now to the Greater Toronto Airports Authority and Ms. McKee.

[Lorrie McKee, Director, Public Affairs and Stakeholder Relations, Greater Toronto Airports Authority]

Good morning. Thank you very much for inviting us here to speak today. I am here, as the chair said, on behalf of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority. We are the private not-for-profit organization that operates Toronto Pearson. My name is Lorrie McKee, and I am the director of public affairs and stakeholder relations.

Pearson is Canada's largest airport. We served 44 million passengers in 2016. We expect to end this year at 47 million passengers, so that's a three million increase. The airport facilitates about 42 billion dollars' worth of Ontario's GDP. That's about 6.3%.

Looking forward to the growth we see coming, by 2037 we expect that the airport will double in passenger numbers, up to about 85 million passengers. I should note that the number of aircraft movements is not growing at the same rate. It's a slower rate. It's mirroring our population growth, about 1.5%.

The growth we are experiencing reflects what our region and the country's growth is, and what our local economies are demanding of us. As the region grows, there is an opportunity for the airport's economic contribution to grow in step. For 20 years, the GTAA has been making the necessary investments to make sure that aviation needs can be met, and we are committed to continuing to do that.

While the airport is operated by the GTAA, the federal government plays an important role in getting passengers to and through the airport seamlessly. We are looking to the government to continue in that partnership in three key areas.

The first is the excessive wait times for pre-board security screening on departure, and for customs and immigration upon arrival. Long lineups, flight delays, and missed connections negatively impact the economy and Canada's global competitiveness. Last year at Toronto Pearson, more than five million passengers waited longer than 10 minutes, and close to three million waited longer than 15 minutes for CATSA, which is the pre-board screening service. In 2016, nearly one million passengers waited longer than 20 minutes for customs screening at CBSA.

We are asking that the government increase CATSA and CBSA funding to efficiently manage passenger growth at Toronto Pearson, and implement a federally mandated service level standard for both agencies. To be competitive globally, we recommend that Canada establish and fund to a service level standard that would see 95% of passengers screened in 10 minutes or less.

The second area is this. For Toronto Pearson to maximize its national economic contribution as Canada's front door to the world, the way we connect people and businesses on the ground must be on par with the considerable success we've achieved at connecting them by air. There are 300,000 people working in the area around the airport. That area has been termed by the Neptis Foundation the second-largest employment zone in the country. However, it lacks good transit options, so the area's economic potential is not being achieved, given that lack of transit.

We know that congestion is only going to get worse, with travel times in and around the airport expected to increase 25% to 30% in the next 25 years. Today, only 10% of passengers and employees use transit to get to the airport, compared to 30% in Vancouver, 40% in Amsterdam, and 60% in Shanghai, for example. You can see how we are lagging behind other world-class airports.

Toronto Pearson and the GTAA have committed to investing funds to build a regional transit centre—a Union Station West, so to speak—on airport and federal lands. The centre would connect some planned regional transit lines such as the Mississauga BRT, the light rail systems for Eglinton and Finch, potentially GO regional rail, and the proposed high-speed rail from the province. A regional transit centre at Toronto Pearson would help ease the congestion around the airport and move people and goods.

As I said, we are prepared to make the investment and build that facility, but we are looking to governments at all levels to work collaboratively and advance the necessary studies on the various lines to bring this transit centre to life.

Finally, in the third area, we ask that the government consider some changes to the duty-free rules so that Canadian airports can deliver what travellers have come to expect at major international airports: dual duty-free and arrivals duty-free.

Dual duty-free is a process that would allow a domestic passenger in a mixed area to buy products at duty-free stores and pay all the duties and taxes that are applicable. Nationally, we calculate that this would increase sales and generate federal and provincial taxes in the magnitude of about $3.8 million annually.

We are also asking for arrivals duty-free. This is something that has been talked about for many years. More than 60 countries around the world have introduced a way to have arrivals duty-free at their airports, but Canada has not yet made that choice. We expect the financial benefits of arrivals duty-free would be about $350 million in repatriated sales that are currently happening in foreign airports, more than 700 new jobs, and nearly $18 million in taxes.

We request that the government work with the provinces to introduce both a dual shop program and an arrivals duty-free so we can be competitive with our global partners.

In closing, as the country's largest airport connecting Canada to 70% of the world's economy, Toronto Pearson does play a critical role in the economic activity of the country. We allow Canadian businesses to reach domestic and global markets, generate jobs and taxes, and facilitate trade, foreign investment, and tourism. The federal government's programs need to evolve in step with our growth.

Thank you very much. I'm happy to take any questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you, Ms. McKee.

Turning to Indspire, Ms. Jamieson, president and CEO, welcome.

[Chief Roberta Jamieson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Indspire]

Good morning, sekoh, bonjour.

Greetings to everyone, and thank you for the opportunity to be here.

I begin by acknowledging that we are on the traditional territory of the Ojibwa, the Anishinabe, the Mississaugas of the New Credit, and my own people, the Haudenosaunee.

The question before us today is, what federal measures would help Canadians be more productive? Well, I've thought about that in my current role for 13 years, as head of the only national indigenous-led charity in the field of supporting education for first nations, Métis, and Inuit youth. Our mandate and challenge is to raise funds from corporations, private individuals, and governments to use for bursaries for post-secondary education for indigenous students.

As well, we have a much-needed K-to-12 institute that provides educators working with our students across Canada with professional development resources and the tools they need to improve the educational outcomes and increase high school completion rates for indigenous students. We also provide those students with ongoing mentoring and peer support to help them to succeed.

To address the question, a productive Canada is one that includes the full, equitable, and sustainable participation of first nations, Inuit, and Métis people in all aspects of Canadian society, as workers, carpenters, doctors, small business owners, teachers, engineers, public servants, and so on. We are Canada's fastest-growing demographic cohort—important in maintaining Canada's workforce. However, present circumstances are such that if there are not interventions, if there are not the right supports, and if our students do not get the education other Canadians take for granted, that potential productive force, which the experts say could be worth $36.4 billion over the next 15 years, is not going to be all that productive.

Don Drummond and Andrew Sharpe of the Centre for the Study of Living Standards said in a recent report that the demographic that will heavily influence Canada's economic growth going forward is none other than indigenous youth. It seems obvious to me, then, that the federal government will want to take advantage of the opportunity and provide the needed financial supports to communities and organizations across the country that are dedicated to ensuring that the country's indigenous peoples play a leading role in a more productive Canada.

We have been working very hard to make that happen, and I can tell you that Indspire is ready to do more. We want to build upon the impacts we have already had. Those impacts include assisting over 50,000 indigenous students to graduate from post-secondary studies, sharing with communities across the country successful practices, providing professional development to thousands of educators across the country who are working in our communities, evaluating and sharing innovative practices that are improving outcomes for students and, finally, by exposing thousands of indigenous youth to career opportunities and employers through our events.

As a charity, we work hard to encourage Canada's corporations, banks, and individual Canadians to contribute to indigenous education. However, what we raise is not enough to meet the need to realize the potential, and we want to make Canada more productive. For us to better meet the needs of even more indigenous youth, Indspire is making two very important requests to be included in your 2018 budget.

First, we currently have an agreement with INAC that funds us approximately $817,000 annually. We also, through a series of proposals, annually receive about $1 million from a program called New Paths for Education. The INAC agreement has not changed over the last 20 years, despite the growth in the population of indigenous people, not to mention inflation. We're seeking consolidation of those funds plus an additional $600,000 of new money. Why? It's so that we can conduct the necessary research I believe public policy-makers need on indigenous youth and education and to do greater best practice research. The total ask is $2.45 million annually.

Second, the previous government agreed to provide additional funds to Indspire if we could raise matching funds from the private sector. Well, we did that. This government announced in budget 2017, which we are very grateful for, that it would provide an additional $25 million over five years if we could raise another $15 million from the private sector. This year, the goal from the private sector was $3 million, and we've reached that. That has meant, though, that this year Indspire is distributing $18 million in much needed bursaries and scholarships. We've historically met about 11% of the need. With that additional money, the $18 million this year, we're meeting about 20% of the needs of the students who come to us.

However, this current fiscal year is the last year of the previous government's commitment. That means that, without any additional new funding, we're going to slide back and very likely end up meeting only 11% of the need. We will slide back from 18% to 8%, frankly. The need is only increasing, and that reduction represents a 60% hit. Even just to maintain the level of funding, Indspire requests that the current commitment be increased by an additional $5 million annually over the next four years. We have the statistics. Our program works. Our most recent survey in 2017 showed that 96% of the students we support graduate.

In closing, I'll repeat what we all know. Education inspires, liberates, opens doors, and provides opportunity. It changes lives, families, and communities. Education is the best means available to realize the potential that exists in every first nation, Inuit, and Métis child and to create a more productive and prosperous Canada. It is a wise and compelling investment and the key to reconciliation.

Niawen’kó:wa. Thank you for listening to my words.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you very much, Roberta.

Next, from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of Canada, we have Mr. Prowten and Mr. Tohill.

[Dave Prowten, President and Chief Executive Officer, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. On behalf of JDRF Canada, the leading global charity focused on research to cure, prevent, and treat type 1 diabetes, I want to thank you for inviting us here today to present to the pre-budget consultations.

Type 1 diabetes or T1D is a chronic, potentially fatal, autoimmune disease in which a person’s pancreas stops producing insulin, a hormone that transforms food into energy, causing a lifetime dependence on daily injections or infusions of insulin to maintain glucose control.

Those living with type 1 diabetes must carefully balance food intake, physical activity, and insulin to maintain their blood glucose levels within a target range. Failing to appropriately manage this disease may lead to costly and devastating complications such as kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, amputation, heart attack, or stroke. There's a constant risk of dangerously low or dangerously high blood glucose levels which are life-threatening. We really can't overestimate what is involved in managing this disease. It's incredibly time-consuming and meticulous.

As I'm sure you know, the Government of Canada has long offered relief to Canadians through the disability tax credit, the DTC. According to the Government of Canada's website, the purpose of the DTC is to provide for greater tax equity by allowing some relief for disability costs since these are unavoidable additional expenses that other taxpayers don't have to face. The out-of-pocket costs of managing type 1 diabetes are significant. Depending on individual income and insurance coverage, the costs range from $1,000 to $15,000 annually.

New technologies, such as insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors, certainly help people with type 1 diabetes better manage their disease. They benefit the patients and taxpayers, because better glucose control means fewer emergency room visits and longer-term complications, which are obviously very costly to the health care system. However, these devices are expensive and not fully covered by provincial or private insurance plans.

There's no question that Canadians living with type 1 diabetes have additional expenses that other taxpayers don't have to face. For nearly a dozen years, Canadians with type 1 diabetes have been able to rely on the disability tax credit for at least some financial relief. The notion of a life-sustaining therapy with respect to the DTC was expanded in 2006 to allow people with diabetes to qualify. There's no denying that insulin therapy is life-sustaining. If you're a type 1 diabetic and you don't take your insulin, you'll die.

The CRA's interpretation of the rules around life-sustaining therapy seem to have changed as of May 1 this year. According to the Association of Canadian Disability Benefit Professionals, at least 80% and possibly more than 90% of the claims are now being denied. This is happening despite their doctors having certified that they spend more than the requisite 14 hours a week administering insulin therapy and the associated requirements such as blood glucose testing.

As the costs of type 1 diabetes grow, making it more difficult to access the disability tax credit, the result will be greater inequality in Canada and a greater burden to people living with this disease.

We believe everybody with type 1 diabetes should qualify for the disability tax credit. In our pre-budget submission to this committee, JDRF recommended two small changes to the Income Tax Act that would make this possible.

The first change would ensure that the function of calculating carbohydrates or the food on your plate is included when determining the time spent administering a life-sustaining therapy for the purposes of claiming the DTC. Insulin is not like getting a regimen of antibiotics from your doctor. It's not like “take at every meal”. You actually have to calculate exactly what you take, because if you don't, it can be very dangerous. Calculating the carbohydrates is an inseparable function of calculating the appropriate insulin dosage.

The other amendment would be to reduce the threshold from 14 hours to 10 hours to remove any uncertainty in determining the DTC eligibility for Canadians with type 1 diabetes.

We believe these proposed changes would ensure that every Canadian with type 1 diabetes would be eligible for this vital relief mechanism.

We want to thank the members of this committee for inviting us here today. We look forward to answering any questions to help these patients in Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you very much, Dave.

We go now to Kids Help Phone. Ms. Simon is vice-president of counselling services.

Welcome.

[Alisa Simon, Vice-President, Counselling Services and Programs, Kids Help Phone]

Thank you. It's wonderful to be here.

I want to start by telling you who Kids Help Phone is, because we are a national charity that most people know in Canada, but many people think of us as we were in 1989.

For almost 30 years, Kids Help Phone has been, as I said, a national charity and a global leader, known for our expertise in improving the mental health and well-being of young people across Canada. We are the only national help line for young people. We provide a lifeline of support in English and in French by providing counselling, information, and referral services, and we also have online tools and resources. Last year, we provided counselling to 70,000 young people across Canada, and over a million young people visited our websites to find relevant information and content, as well as support. We are also one of the only help lines in the world to conduct evaluations so that we are able to demonstrate our impact and show that young people are better off for having reached out and spoken to a counsellor.

Today I will talk a bit about the impact on productivity of mental illness and mental health in Canada. I'll start with some numbers. Although numbers are often boring, they're important, particularly in the finance committee.

We know that one in five Canadians experiences a mental health condition in any given year, compared to one in 25 for heart disease. We know that the annual economic burden of mental illness in Canada, including health care costs, lost productivity, and reductions in quality of life, is $51 billion. In any given week, 500,000 employed Canadians are unable to work due to mental health problems.

We focus on youth. We know that 70% of mental health problems have their onset in childhood and adolescence; 77% of young people with mental health problems have missed out on education, and 12% have just stopped education altogether.

We know the economic fallout of this data, and there's a lot more data that could be shared with you on the economic impact of mental illness. It provides a compelling argument for addressing these issues effectively and that we have to have a long-term view of how we support individuals, families, communities, and businesses.

We have five recommendations that I'm going to very quickly go through today.

One is that we would like to support the creation of Canada's first national commissioner for children and youth. There is more detail on this in our submission. We believe this role would provide the federal government with a visible and effective leadership voice to the Canadian public and ensure that the rights of children and youth are fully addressed and integrated across all areas within federal jurisdiction. This proposal came from the National Alliance for Children and Youth of which Kids Help Phone is a member.

Our second recommendation is to address the challenges of mental illness and suicide on Canadian post-secondary campuses. Kids Help Phone has run a service in Ontario for many years called Good2Talk or Allo J'écoute. It is a 24-7 help line that has been fully evaluated and shown to be effective. We know that 75% of mental health disorders in young people develop by the age of 24 and that suicide is the second-leading cause of death for young people in Canada. We have a proven solution in Ontario that is working, that we believe needs to go nationwide to meet the needs of post-secondary students regardless of where they are.

Third, we'd like to help young people by supporting innovative services that use technology to support them in the way they prefer. Anybody who has a young person in their life knows that they do not like to call and use their voice. In 2012, Kids Help Phone developed a live chat service that has proven to be very effective, is used by young people with high-risk mental health conditions, and is in incredibly high demand, a demand that we are not able to match with our current budget.

We also know that we have to do more. We need to start texting. We need to start using artificial intelligence. We need to have a plan for rolling out services that meet the needs of young people. Therefore, we have developed and are launching Canada's first and only nationwide 24-7 texting service for youth. There is a scheduled service pilot in Manitoba this year, with a national rollout planned for 2018, if we are able to get the funds.

Our fourth recommendation is to create a national registry of emergency service contacts in Canada. We don't think about this a lot, because if any of us is in a crisis, we dial 911. But when you run a 24-7 crisis line for any young person in Canada, you cannot dial 911 in the jurisdiction where the young person is located.

In addition, many of the local police, fire, and ambulance centres are not staffed 24-7, so services such as Kids Help Phone require a national registry of emergency service contacts to be able to quickly get help out to a young person regardless of where they are in Canada. We believe without the support of the government for this registry, it will not happen and the safety of young people accessing help will be compromised.

Our final recommendation is to support the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's call to action to redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation. As you all know, the commission published 94 calls to action to change policies and programs in a concerted effort to repair the harm caused by residential schools and move forward with reconciliation. Kids Help Phone supports this work. We understand that as a non-indigenous organization, our work must be rooted in reconciliation, but we also recognize we cannot do this work alone. We urge the Canadian government to support indigenous and non-indigenous organizations to come together to support this truly required and necessary work.

In conclusion, we believe the federal government has an essential role to play in enabling Canadian businesses to be more productive and competitive. We believe those companies that make a priority of investing in positive mental health outcomes for their employees and their families have great potential to make us all more productive. We believe our recommendations will have a positive, long-lasting effect, supporting the significant reduction in the $6-billion cost experienced by businesses as the result of absenteeism and presenteeism associated with personal and family mental health problems.

I thank you for your time and for continuing to be an ally for young people in Canada. My final request is that all of you walk away today taking into consideration the recommendations we have presented, but also making sure to tell the young people in your lives that it is okay to ask for help, that we all experience challenges, and if they don't know where to start, the Kids Help Phone is always there for them.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you very much, Alisa.

Turning then to the last panellist on this panel, the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council, we have Ms. Eaton, executive director. Welcome.

[Margaret Eaton, Executive Director, Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council]

Thank you very much and thank you for having me here to speak. Thank you to the wonderful panellists. I really enjoyed hearing from all of you.

I am here to discuss the important role that immigrants play in our national economic prosperity. Immigrants bring skills, innovation, new perspectives, and international business knowledge to Canada. They are vital to the economic growth and ongoing prosperity of our country: 38% of immigrants to Canada have a university degree compared to 24% of people born here, and a stunning half of all people in Canada who have Ph.D.s were immigrants to Canada.

At the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council, we create and champion solutions to better integrate skilled immigrants into the greater Toronto region labour market. Why is this important? Because the skills and talents of immigrants are not being leveraged to their full potential. In Toronto, the problem is particularly prevalent. One report recently found that only 3% of immigrants who were working in professional occupations before coming to Toronto were working in their field after landing here.

Immigrant underemployment also costs the Canadian economy, wasting billions in lost earnings each year. If immigrant skills were rewarded in a similar way to those of Canadian-born workers, the increase in their incomes would amount to about $30 billion, or the equivalent of 2.1% of our gross domestic product.

Because of our low birth rate, Canada needs immigrants for both economic and social prosperity. Several recent reports have predicted that net migration will be the key driver to any future population growth. Immigrants play a vital role in expanding the workforce so there are enough people to do the jobs that need to be done, build our infrastructure, pay taxes, and contribute to our social and economic well-being.

The committee's question for witnesses asks what federal measures would help Canadians and Canadian businesses be more productive and competitive, and our recommendation really helps both. We recommend that the Government of Canada invest in immigrant mentoring programs as a proven, effective way to increase the employment of skilled immigrants across Canada, while also helping Canadian businesses benefit from having more diverse, productive teams.

Mentoring programs match an immigrant with a mentor in their field. In our program they spend about 18 hours together over three months. During that time, the mentor helps the immigrant understand Canadian workplace culture and how to conduct a job search. Most importantly, the mentor must connect the mentee with at least seven people in their professional network. We know that 70% of the jobs out there are not actually even posted, so the only way to progress in your career is to build that professional network. That's what mentoring does.

The results of mentoring are outstanding. Seventy-five per cent of mentees matched with mentoring partnerships find employment in their field. Full-time annual earnings of immigrants increase on average by 62% after participating in the program. A recent study by the Boston Consulting Group showed that the social return on investment for the program is also very high. For every $1 invested in the program, there is a return of $10.50 in benefits to Canada.

However, the program changes the mentors too. For me, this is one of the most important parts of what we do. Eighty-seven per cent of mentors tell us they are much more likely to hire a skilled immigrant after participating in the program. Businesses and employers become much more diverse as a result, leading to more productivity, innovation, and connection to new global markets.

There are mentoring programs across Canada delivering these results for immigrants and employers, but we could integrate more immigrants into the Canadian economy faster with further investment. We ask for the creation of a national mentoring fund to increase the opportunities for immigrants to have access to this important intervention.

Skilled immigrants have made the choice to come to Canada and contribute to our country, but we owe it to them and to ourselves to ensure that they have the best opportunity for success.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you very much, Margaret.

We will have to tighten up a little on the questions. We will go to five-minute rounds.

Mr. Fergus.

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I will be very brief.

Ms. Jamieson, thank you for your work with Indspire, an organization that I have had the pleasure of knowing well during my career.

I would like to ask you a quick question.

Why do you think Indspire is much better positioned than Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada to close the gap in terms of assisting indigenous youth to graduate from post-secondary institutions?

[Chief Roberta Jamieson]

Thank you for your question.

I'm not sure I want to compare a national charity to a department of government.