Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
First of all, I'd like to introduce my officials who have joined me here today. Karen Jackson is the head of Service Canada and Alfred Tsang is our chief financial officer.
Mr. Chair, committee members, I am pleased to speak to the 2011-2012 supplementary estimates (B) for the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development.
I would first like to say a few words about the broader economic context, if I may.
It is clear that the global economy remains fragile, and although we can be proud of Canada's financial position, we really aren't at the end of the challenges of the global financial situation. That's why as a government we remain focused on job creation and on economic growth. As the Minister of Finance has said, our approach to balancing economic efforts with deficit reduction is working and we will continue our G-8-leading approach to economic stability.
As one of the largest departments in the Government of Canada, HRSDC must also reflect the short- and long-term fiscal realities we are facing with solid leadership and stewardship for Canadian taxpayers.
This brings me to the supplementary estimates for my department.
First, I am pleased to point out that money committed in Budget 2011 to increase the Guaranteed Income Supplement for our most vulnerable seniors has already been dispersed.
This is the largest top-up to the GIS in 25 years and will mean that 680,000 seniors will receive more money this year.
These changes mean that a single low-income senior may receive up to $600 more a year and that a low-income couple may receive up to an additional $840 a year.
Secondly, I'm requesting $2.4 million to implement the rollover and carry-forward provisions introduced in budget 2010 to the Canada disability savings plan.
As announced in budget 2010, this proposal will allow a deceased individual's registered retirement savings plan, registered retirement income fund, or registered pension plan to be transferred tax free to the registered disability savings plan of their financially dependent child or grandchild with a severe and prolonged disability. This $2.4 million under vote 1 will go towards the implementation of these provisions.
You will also note that as a reflection of the increasing popularity of the Canada disability savings grant program, we are increasing our statutory grants forecast by $43.8 million.
This is good news for families with children who have severe and prolonged disabilities. It represents another way in which our government is supporting Canada's families.
Under vote 5, most of these proposals are unspent funds carried over from previous years, with one notable exception, and that is the increase of $5 million for the new horizons program.
This delivers on a Budget 2011 commitment and reflects our government's priority of combatting elder abuse and encouraging the active participation of Canada's seniors in our communities.
Third, I want to talk about the Canada student loan program. I'm sure that most members of this committee will have noticed the $149.5 million writeoff of unrecoverable debts under this program, which is under vote 7. Let me put this number into some context, if I may.
The vast majority of Canada student loans--87%, to be precise--are repaid in full. The default on student loans has decreased to all-time lows under our government, thanks in part to changes in the repayment assistance program. This program helped approximately 160,000 borrowers find repayment options last year, ensuring a balance between the need to repay loans with the ability of low-income students to afford these payments. This program ensures that the payments for low-income students do not account for more than 20% of that student's income.
The debts included in this one-time writeoff cover a three-year period, and all reasonable efforts to collect them have been exhausted over six years; when an individual has not made a payment in six years and CRA considers the debt unrecoverable, the government writes it off.
The perceived increase from the estimates of 2007-08 is a result of two factors. The first is the combination of three years of loan writeoffs into this one submission. The second is that the Government of Canada started the direct financing of student loans only a short time ago. The first loans were issued 10 years ago, so any students who studied for a year or two and then did not repay their loans when they came due would only recently have run out the clock on the six-year limit.
This proposal was introduced as part of supplementary estimates (C) in March of last year, but because the election occurred before the passage of these estimates, this proposal has been re-introduced in our supplementary estimates (B) for this year.
Let me conclude by saying that our government's focus remains squarely on economic growth and job creation. In fact, we've seen close to 600,000 net new jobs created since the depth of the recession in July 2009, and we continue to focus our efforts on getting unemployed Canadians back to work.
HRSDC will continue to prioritize programs that ensure we have the most skilled and productive workforce in the world.
This includes ensuring young people have access to student loans as they pursue post-secondary education and upgrade their skills.
It also means faster processing for foreign credential recognition so that new Canadians can enter the workforce more quickly and contribute more fully to our communities.
Finally, it means that we will remove barriers, provide programs, and increase services to older workers so they can remain in the workforce longer and continue to contribute to our economy.
I will now ask Minister Raitt to say a few words about the aspects of the supplementary estimates that affect the labour program.
Merci.