It's a very interesting question.
There is a lot that can be done, and one of the things we liked best about your party's platform was the EI holiday that was proposed for youth hiring. That is a terrific incentive. It's something that has been done in the past. Previous Liberal governments have implemented that. We've been strong champions of it as well. Your government promised to put in place a three-year holiday for 2016, 2017, and 2018 for youth between 18 and 24 years old. They would still pay premiums themselves but employers would have a holiday to incentivize them to create more jobs oriented towards young people.
You are quite right; there are challenges with youth employment. I have to admit we were fairly strong critics of the previous government with respect to the actions it took on the temporary foreign worker program because there is an ongoing need for workers for jobs that Canadians themselves are not lining up for. I have to say that I sympathize with the young person who has gone to school for four years or eight years and now has $50,000 in student debt. The job that might be available to him or her is at a quick-service restaurant or cleaning rooms in a hotel. I can understand why he or she might choose to sit on the sidelines of the labour market for a bit in that environment, but we have to recognize that all work is noble. If we're not prepared to do the jobs ourselves, if we're not prepared to encourage our kids to take those jobs, we're going to need to bring in somebody who is prepared to do some of those jobs.
We can do a much better job as employers though, by reaching out to some of the underemployed pockets of the labour force. The aboriginal population and seniors have some potential. The youth piece is a difficult nut to crack and I have to confess there are a lot of employers, a lot of our members, who have lamented that the work ethic in Canada is generally declining. That is one of the challenges that they face as well.
Very quickly, on the CPP front, I did want to say that even the strongest proponents of CPP admit that the benefits don't actually kick in fully for forty years, so no seniors today would get a nickel more in Canada Pension Plan contributions and even those five or 10 years out would get almost nothing from CPP expansion, so this really would benefit perhaps kids like my seven-year-old son, but not any time soon.