Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the human resources standing committee. I'm pleased to have this opportunity to appear before you today.
As noted, my name is Paul Thompson. I'm the associate assistant deputy minister for the skills and employment branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development.
Before I begin, I'd like to introduce the colleagues with me at the table who will be able to speak to various aspects of Budget 2009 and the budget implementation act.
David MacDonald is the assistant deputy minister for the learning branch at HRSDC. He'll be able to respond to questions pertaining to the Canada student loan program.
Scott Streiner is ADM of the labour program. He'll be able to speak to the wage earner protection program measure that was in Budget 2009.
Beside me is Liliane Binette, Assistant Deputy Minister for the HRSDC Quebec region. She'll be able to answer your questions on Service Canada's role concerning the implementation of measures contained in the budget and on service delivery in general.
While my colleagues will be able to speak to a broader range of issues, I will limit my introductory comments to the Canada Skills and Transition Strategy; the principles that will guide the implementation of these commitments; and how we plan to move forward.
While I'm not in a position to comment on the policy decisions around these measures, I will do my best to provide information, as will my colleagues, on the nature of these measures and the current plans for implementation.
As you heard from Minister Finley, Budget 2009 outlines an agenda to address the impacts of the current economic downturn. The government's economic action plan announced that Canada's skills and transition strategy would target those workers who are affected by the downturn. More specifically, the strategy provides $8.3 billion in various initiatives to help Canadians, which is designed to address the short-term challenges but also provide them with the necessary training to equip workers for the longer term.
The strategy aims to assist Canadians through a three-theme approach, and I can speak to each of these briefly: strengthening benefits for Canadian workers, enhancing the availability of training, and keeping employment insurance rates frozen.
The first section, on strengthening benefits for Canadian workers, focuses primarily on enhancements to the employment insurance program to help workers and their families. The key measures include an extension of the EI benefits to provide nationally the benefits that are currently available through the extended benefits pilot in highest unemployment regions in the country. This measure will also increase the maximum benefit duration from 45 weeks to 50 weeks. The estimated cost of this measure is $1.15 billion over two years. It will be implemented through the budget implementation act.
The following measure extends EI benefits for long-tenured workers participating in training. This measure will be implemented as a pilot project in collaboration with provinces and territories and provide eligible workers with a maximum of 104 weeks of EI benefits while they pursue longer term training, including up to 12 weeks to support job search. There's also a related measure which will allow earlier access to EI benefits for laid-off workers who choose to invest all or part of the separation payments in their own training. The estimated cost of these measures is $500 million over 2 years.
The anticipated impact of this measure is 40,000 individuals.
The next measure is that of extending the duration of work-sharing agreements by 14 weeks, to a maximum of 52 weeks, and allowing a greater access to work-sharing agreements through flexibility in the qualifying criteria. This is intended to avert layoffs and allow workers to continue working while companies experience a temporary slowdown. The estimated cost of this measure is $200 million over two years.
The next measure is the expansion of the wage earner protection program to cover unpaid severance and termination pay for up to a maximum of four weeks of maximum insurable earnings, as defined in the Employment Insurance Act. These elements are in addition to existing measures in the wage earner protection program that cover unpaid wages and vacation leave of workers from companies that have gone bankrupt or have entered into receivership. The estimated cost is $50 million over two years. My colleague Scott Streiner is here to speak further on this measure, if required.
Lastly in this section, I'll just note the intention to create an expert panel to consult Canadians on how best to provide maternity and parental benefits for the self-employed.
The next thematic area in the budget is that of enhancing the availability of training for Canadian workers through a variety of measures. First is increased funding of $1 billion over two years through the employment insurance program for training delivered by provinces and territories through labour market development agreements. This measure will be relatively straightforward to implement, since funding will flow through existing agreements with provinces and territories, under which they will receive funding to deliver and develop training programs. The estimated impact of this measure is approximately 100,000 individuals over two years.
The other measure in this category is the creation of a new strategic training and transition fund to support the needs of individuals affected by the downturn. This measure is designed to be flexible to meet diverse circumstances across regions, and can be used for clients whether or not they are eligible for employment insurance. This fund will be administered through labour market agreements, which include provisions for public reporting and accountability. The estimated cost is $500 million over two years. The anticipated impact is roughly 50,000 claimants.
Another measure in this area is enhancements to the existing Canada summer jobs program to enable more job opportunities in the not-for-profit sector. The estimated cost is $20 million over two years.
There is a one-time grant to the YM-YWCA to support youth internships for not-for-profit and community services. The amount dedicated to this is $15 million.
As well, there are additional investments in the targeted initiative for older workers. This includes an expansion of the initiative to include more vulnerable cities with populations of less than 250,000. The estimated cost for this measure is $60 million over three years.
The next one is the apprenticeship completion grant. We'll be offering $2,000 to apprentices who successfully complete their training in any red seal trade. This completion grant complements the existing apprenticeship incentive grant, which is valued at $1,000. This is a measure that will cost $40 million per year, with 20,000 apprentices per year being eligible.
The next measure involves plans to develop a national foreign qualification recognition framework in partnership with provinces and territories to support the recognition of credentials for new Canadians. The estimated cost of this measure is $50 million.
Next is a combination of two measures to support aboriginal skills development and training. The first measure is additional investments in the existing aboriginal skills and employment partnership program to foster partnerships among aboriginal organizations, employers, provincial and territorial governments. This investment is $100 million over three years. The estimated impact is roughly 6,000 jobs for aboriginal Canadians. The second measure in terms of aboriginal training is a new aboriginal skills and training strategic investment fund that will focus on training for specific jobs and set the stage for a new aboriginal labour market program. This fund will have a cost of $75 million over two years, and will have an estimated impact of 6,000 jobs for aboriginal Canadians. Both of these measures will target first nations, Métis, and Inuit people.
Lastly, the third theme is on keeping employment insurance rates frozen. The premium rate will be maintained at $1.73 per $100 of insurable earnings for 2009 and for 2010. The 2009 rate was set in November. The 2010 rate will be established in the budget implementation act. The Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board will be setting premiums on a break-even basis beginning in 2011.
In order to deliver on these commitments, we are guided by a number of key principles, the first of which is timeliness. A majority of these measures are temporary, but we are building on existing mechanisms to expedite the implementation and get the money flowing quickly.
The next principle is ensuring that they're targeted to those workers most affected by the economic downturn, such as people who have worked in an industry for a long time and may need skills upgrading or require transition to new employment, or lower-skilled workers with limited labour force attachment.
As far as the temporary implementation is concerned, the majority of budget 2009 commitments are time-limited and build on existing initiatives, both federal and provincial/territorial. Provinces and territories designed and deliver many labour market programs, and we will work with them to ensure that the investments flow to Canadians quickly.
And finally, on the matter of smart risk management, we fully recognize the importance of effective reporting and accountability. This will involve regular on going monitoring of progress and outcomes. We will align our program reporting with the government-wide reporting plans.
There are a number of measures I have mentioned that still require the appropriate authorities, legislative, regulatory, or internal approvals. We plan to move swiftly with the implementation and have them in place at various points in the spring.
In conclusion, I hope this outline of the key elements of the Canada skills and transition strategy gives you an overview of the measures that we will implement to provide support to workers during the economic downturn.
At this time, I will turn things over to Karen Kinsley, president of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, who will provide you with an overview of the housing initiatives in the budget implementation act.
