Evidence of meeting #26 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 40th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was money.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
That's our intention. With respect to our three measures and job creation and stimulus, I'll start with the largest one, the STTF, the Strategic Training and Transition Fund, which is the biggest one. It's $500 million over two years, $250 million for this year. I'm pleased that we have an agreement with nine of the provinces. We're expecting the rest to participate. If we look at the nine provinces right now, that's 95% of the money.
We have made the commitment. Because of that commitment, provinces have gone out and adjusted their plans for the training they're going to provide. They're starting to roll out that training now. In some cases, it's immediate. In other cases, it's going to be September before people are enrolled. These are fairly sizable numbers. We're talking about having approximately 25,000 people a year on training as result of that money. It is stimulus, but it is also a longer-term investment in these people. It will help them get better jobs in the future. Some will get jobs now. Others will upgrade their skills. There's a range of possibilities.
For Canada summer jobs, I'll turn to my colleague Joanne Lamothe. But the $10 million is only an additional amount on a program that, for 2009, will be $107.5 million in total. That's a sizable program. It's a program that was already important and popular, providing young men and women with experience throughout the summer. This just builds on that.
Finally, on internship, you're correct, it's not a large amount, but this is important for a limited number of people. This is going to be delivered this summer; there are going to be job experiences right there this summer.
Bloc
Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am sharing my time with my colleague, Mr. Roy.
Ladies, gentlemen, good morning.
Right away, I feel like saying: ''phew''! You have given us an enormous amount of information in very little time. I would like to come back to the questions my colleague was asking, in order to see my way clear through all this.
First of all, I am addressing each of the spokespersons who took the floor here today. I would like for you to tell me if, before allocating money from the stimulus plan, you had enough time to develop an action plan including timelines—I imagine you did—but also performance indicators.
Associate Deputy Minister, Western Economic Diversification
Thank you very much for your question.
As far as the Canada Business centres are concerned, the program has existed for a long time. It was therefore an issue of adding funding so that they could carry on, something which is all the more important during a recession, because we are well aware of the fact that small- and medium-sized businesses have a lot to do with creating the jobs that we will need in order to stimulate the economy. It was therefore something we were well aware of and we knew it was very important. Therefore we did allocate funds to them.
If I may, I will continue in English.
There are four conversations, and it sort of relates to the previous question, four stages of the program like this. We're very advanced in these four stages. The first stage in the program is---
Bloc
Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
I'm sorry, I know these programs because I have done some research. All I was asking was if you had time to do some planning and to determine some performance indicators.
Associate Deputy Minister, Western Economic Diversification
Absolutely, yes.
Bloc
Chief Financial Officer, Department of Industry
Thank you, Ms. Bourgeois. The short answer is yes.
We have taken the necessary time, in our view, bearing in mind that we have literally billions of dollars at Industry Canada for which we are trying to design programs. We believe we have struck the balance necessary between being expeditious in getting the programs ready to deliver and building into them, at the same time, the necessary probity and safeguards to ensure that the investments are properly protected. Of course, that work is ongoing, and as the programs are delivered, as the money is spent, we will continue to exercise due diligence over the recipients to ensure that this money is safeguarded.
Bloc
Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
That is excellent, because you have to understand that you have operating funds, but that there is also an added amount which is vote 35, which goes to the stimulus plan.
Mr. Robins, have you done your planning and have you established performance indicators?
Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
Yes, we have broken down our Project New Lease into many smaller projects, and we have scorecards that measure the operating performance against the plans. We report against that at the management team on a monthly basis, and at the board on a quarterly basis.
For the ACR, we run the advanced CANDU reactor program like a project with milestones, and we report against the milestones--the head count growth, the performance against each one of those milestones--on a monthly basis for the management and on a quarterly basis to our board.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Thank you very much for your question, Madam.
In designing these three measures, I think we and the government were very conscious of trying to find the right balance between getting the money out quickly, creating jobs, and making sure there's proper planning in place, proper safeguards, etc.
When we look at the three measures, if we start with the Strategic Training and Transition Fund, this money was flowed through existing labour market agreements. There are all the planning safeguards and mechanisms in place, so that existing mechanism was used. The same thing can be said for Canada summer jobs, a well-established program that has been running for many years. One slightly different one is the grant for the YM-YWCA. This is a new program, but careful consideration was given to putting in place the checks and balances.
Bloc
Bloc
Jean-Yves Roy Bloc Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Vermaeten, I have a question for you. In the end, you are saying that you got an extra $10 million in funding to increase the number of summer jobs in human resources development. I would answer you that at home, that does not do any good because it corresponds more or less to the indexation of minimum wage. It does not create any extra jobs as far as the $107-million budget that you had is concerned, because it corresponds to approximately 10%, that is in the indexation of minimum wage. Therefore, we find ourselves with roughly the same number of jobs. Ten million dollars is 10% of $100 million, which corresponds to the indexing of minimum wage compared with last year. I would therefore like to know if elsewhere, the $10 million in question will create more jobs, because if that is not quite correct...
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Thank you sir. Perhaps I could ask my colleague Joanne Lamothe to answer.
Joanne Lamothe Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Programs Operation Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Yes, the $10 million will indeed create more jobs.
Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Programs Operation Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
We do not have the figures for now. We are in the process of negotiating agreements across the country and we hope to wrap that up within two weeks...
Bloc
Jean-Yves Roy Bloc Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC
I'm sorry to interrupt you, but what I'm telling you is that in Quebec, the $10 million corresponds roughly to the indexing of minimum wage. Therefore, if you do a comparison with last year—the $107-million amount was based on last year's data— at home, this is not true. In my riding, the $10 million does not create even one extra job; it indexes minimum wage and that is all.
Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Programs Operation Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
But across Canada, we will create extra jobs.
Bloc
Jean-Yves Roy Bloc Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC
Perhaps, but in our part of the world, the answer is no. That's what I'm telling you.
Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Programs Operation Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
It also depends on whether we are dealing with the private sector or whether jobs are being created in the not-for-profit sector, because I can certainly tell you that when we deal with the not-for-profit sector [Editor's Note: Inaudible].
Bloc
Jean-Yves Roy Bloc Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC
In our region, 99% of these jobs are in the not-for-profit sector, so that's not so; it creates zero additional employment. Are we on the same wavelength? And that's the case nearly everywhere in Quebec.
I would like to ask Mr. Watson the same question. How many additional jobs will the funding you asked for this year help create, in comparison with last year?
