Evidence of meeting #51 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was quebec.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
Director of Research and Chief Economist, Conseil du patronat du Québec
I imagine that that is partly the case.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
5:05 p.m.
President, Quebec Employers' Council
Mr. Chair, youth have been more affected because, as we explained earlier, they are the last to arrive on the job market. Consequently, they have accumulated fewer hours of work and have less seniority.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
If they have worked fewer hours, that means that they have been disadvantaged because of the high number of hours required, because that number has increased. There is quite a difference between the new figure and the 150 hours that used to be required. When we talk about 910 hours, it is a far cry from 150 hours.
5:05 p.m.
President, Quebec Employers' Council
I would also add the fact that young people work in certain specific sectors. So, in Quebec, the tourism sector, which was hard hit, springs to mind. A lot of young people worked in this sector, usually in temporary jobs. So, yes, more young people have been affected.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
My question is for the two or three groups that are here. Do you not find this to be artificial? The board has been appointed and the government has frozen contributions for two years. Did the board do its job? Two million dollars were taken from general revenue and sent to the board. So $55 billion are gone. We are now stuck with this situation.
Now we are going through an economic crisis. We talk about $55 billion, and we are being generous at that, because the law states that the government has to pay interest on that $55 billion dollar amount. If we were to calculate the interest, we would see that we would be talking about much more than $55 billion. The gentleman from the Conseil du patronat has had much more money than that stolen from him.
5:05 p.m.
Yvan Godin
You agree! Thank you.
I'd like to have your opinion on it, Mr. Blakely.
5:05 p.m.
Director, Canadian Affairs, Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, Canadian Office
In fact the board really has no power to run EI. All they can do is set the rate, invest the money, come up with a balance sheet at the end of the year, and determine whether they made money or lost money.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
In this case, though, they are not the ones setting the rate, because the government said it was frozen for two years.
5:05 p.m.
Director, Canadian Affairs, Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, Canadian Office
Exactly.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Then are we just paying a board with nothing to do? Is the money from EI paying for a group of people to stand by and wait for the boat to come through?
5:05 p.m.
Director, Canadian Affairs, Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, Canadian Office
That was at least part of the pitch I made to this committee when those amendments went through. In the whole business of self-funding of EI, you pay the cost in your taxes or you pay the cost in a payroll premium. When the cost of life insurance goes up or you get a little older, you pay more for life insurance. I don't mind paying a little more--
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
No, but the GST was there to pay the debt of our country, not the EI program.
5:10 p.m.
Director, Canadian Affairs, Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, Canadian Office
I wasn't talking about the GST, though.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
No, I'm not saying that. I'm making a statement. It's not from what you said. I said that in reality, if you want to pay the debt, that's why they put GST and PST.
5:10 p.m.
Director, Canadian Affairs, Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, Canadian Office
EI wasn't supposed to pay the debt.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
No, it was not supposed to do that. It was supposed to help workers. We all agree.
Mr. Dorval, you agree with that too.
Okay. Merci, monsieur le président.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
5:10 p.m.
Bloc
Yves Lessard Bloc Chambly—Borduas, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that this is something important. Mr. Dorval, your experience with the Commission des partenaires du marché du travail is very revealing. In my opinion, we can learn a lot from it.
I would like to know your opinion on training. Mr. Blakely also raised this point. We cannot train everybody. I will give you two examples, which probably involve your members. Let us take the example of Whirlpool, in Rivière-du-Loup, the former Bélanger plant that shut its doors four years ago. Three hundred and fifty people worked there. More than 20% of the workforce was over 55 years of age. They had worked there for 35, 40 or 45 years. They had been trained, but there were no longer any jobs for them.
It is the same for the shoe plant in Charlesbourg, which shut down three years ago. The workforce was almost exclusively women. All the women over 55 years of age, who had always worked in the shoe industry, no longer have any job opportunities. A lot of women received training, but there are no more jobs.
One thing requires some analysis and an answer. Are these people supposed to wait until they are 65 without any income, or, as part of your joint reflection process, have you come up with any ways to compensate for the government's lack of initiative?
5:10 p.m.
President, Quebec Employers' Council
I will let my colleague speak more specifically about the program for older workers.
What we are trying to do together, with our Quebec partners, is to arrive at a better analysis of labour requirements. We also want to determine how to create a balance between labour demand and supply. Obviously, this requires cooperation.
Since we are talking about training, I would add that I heard one of your colleagues talk about the Red Seal Program earlier. I would remind you that in Quebec, we have a small problem with Red Seal. Approximately 70 trades requiring rigorous professional accreditation cannot be part of the Red Seal Program because this type of trade is not recognized professionally elsewhere. We would like the Red Seal Program to recognize those people because money is also tied up with this.
I will now go back more specifically to your question. Some people will not be able to find another job because they do not have certain aptitudes, skills or abilities. We have programs to deal with these situations. You know that, because of the demographic deficit in Quebec, we are now asking for changes to the pension plan, to the Régie des rentes du Québec, so that we can find incentives for people to work even though they are older. But, if it were me, I would not resolve the whole issue of age immediately. There will be many job opportunities for older workers in the future because there will not be enough manpower to do the available work.
Going back to your question, I would say that there certainly are situations that we will not be able to resolve. We therefore have to create social programs to support those people who do not have the ability or skills required or the opportunities to find a job.
5:10 p.m.
Bloc
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you very much.
I want to thank all the witnesses once again for being here on such short notice and for the contributions they've made.
I'm going to suspend the meeting. People can thank the witnesses, and then we'll get right back at it. We have some committee business to deal with.
Thank you once again.
[Proceedings continue in camera]