Human Resources Committee on May 28th, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Good morning, everyone. We'll get going here shortly.

I'd like to welcome the panel members who will be sharing with us.

We have Margaret Gillis from the Public Health Agency of Canada. I'm looking forward to hearing your presentation.

We have Yves Joannette, from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and Jean-Luc Bédard—from Transpol, I'll say, which is a little easier for me than going through the formal title.

We're looking forward to hearing from all of you. After you've presented, we will have questions from each of the members here in the committee. We are scheduled for one hour.

With that, we will start with Ms. Gillis.

Go ahead.

[Margaret Gillis, Senior Director, Children, Seniors and Healthy Development, Public Health Agency of Canada]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and honourable members. I'm really pleased to be here today to speak to you regarding the health of older workers.

As we all know, older Canadians make a vital contribution to society. We are committed to supporting their health, well-being, and quality of life so they can stay active and involved in their communities.

At the Public Health Agency of Canada, our role is to promote the health of Canadians and prevent and control diseases through leadership, partnership, innovation, and action in public health. While our mandate is not specific to the workforce, we promote the health of all Canadians so they can participate fully in their communities, which includes, of course, the workplace.

Helping Canadians to make health choices is a shared responsibility. We work together with multiple levels of government, with stakeholders, and with researchers in order to encourage a sustained approach to health promotion that's based on the very best evidence available.

An example of this collaboration is seen in the commitment to helping Canadians lead healthier lives, as illustrated through the declaration on prevention and promotion. This declaration was endorsed by federal, provincial and territorial governments in 2010 and advances a multi-sectoral approach to the promotion of health and the prevention of disease, disability, and injury. The premise of this declaration is that health promotion is everyone's business.

While Canadians today enjoy a healthier life and are able to live longer, many live longer with serious health issues. Recent statistics tell us that 90% of Canadians aged 65 and over live with at least one chronic disease or condition, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory conditions, diabetes, dementia, arthritis, and obesity.

The good news is that many of the health challenges facing older Canadian are preventable. That's why the Public Health Agency focuses on health promotion and disease prevention through the life course.

Our goal is to increase the years Canadians spend in good health. The agency does this through our programs that promote healthy living, such as, for example, helping Canadians choose healthier foods and being more physically active. Our efforts to support healthy weights in childhood and to promote positive mental health have lifelong effects in preventing serious chronic diseases.

By promoting healthier living across the life course, we're setting the stage for maintaining good mental and physical health, reducing the likelihood of disease as we age, and promoting participation in the workforce. For example, the agency promotes multi-generational well-being, including supporting parents, grandparents, and caregivers through community-based programs for children and their families.

These programs provide funding to help communities to respond to the health and development needs of pregnant women, young children, and their families facing conditions of risk. They cover such issues as nutrition, infant care, immunization, parenting, and early childhood development. They also include positive mental health and injury prevention.

We have developed partnerships with pharmacies, provincial governments, and local public health units to disseminate a diabetes risk questionnaire called CanRisk, which helps Canadians identify the risk of having diabetes. They can then take appropriate measures to avert or delay the onset of this disease.

Successful interventions in one community can often benefit others. The agency gathers and shares these interventions through the Canadian best practices portal. This web-based portal provides a listing of trusted and credible resources designed to promote health and prevent chronic disease and injury. Ten of the best-practice interventions on the portal provide support for healthy workplaces that can also benefit older adults. For example, there's a program for working adults to improve their dietary habits, and there's a self-help intervention to promote active commuting among employees.

In addition to these initiatives, the agency supports immunization as an effective means to protect Canadians from infectious disease, through outreach initiatives such as the national campaign in the fall to promote influenza vaccination for Canadians, including people over the age of 65, since they are a particularly high-risk group.

We also promote the health of Canadian seniors through the age-friendly communities initiative. The agency works with partners on this initiative, including the World Health Organization, all three levels of government in Canada, seniors' organizations, community groups, and planners.

The age-friendly communities initiative is about engaging older adults and community leaders in the creation of supportive built and social environments. Its focus is on making communities more age-friendly so that more Canadians can age in good health. In turn, good health enables people to continue working.

An age-friendly community provides options for older people to continue to contribute to their communities, through paid employment or voluntary work if they so choose. To promote mental health for older people, we engage with partner organizations such as the Canadian Coalition for Seniors' Mental Health and the National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly to share tools and resources for families and practitioners. These resources help those caring for seniors to recognize risks and warning signs related to depression, delirium, and mental health problems, and offer guidance on how to best manage these mental health issues.

Through budget 2007, the federal government provided $130 million over 10 years to establish and support the Mental Health Commission of Canada to act as a focal point for mental health issues. In 2012, the Mental Health Commission launched “Changing Directions, Changing Lives: The Mental Health Strategy for Canada”. This strategy serves as a non-prescriptive blueprint to guide actions to improve the mental health of Canadians.

The agency is also working to improve Canadian data on the mental health of older Canadians. Specifically, to fill in gaps and knowledge about rates of neurological conditions in Canada, such as Alzheimer's disease, and their effects on individuals, families, and caregivers, we are working with Canada's major neurological charities on a four-year population study of Canadians affected by neurological conditions. The results of this study will be available next year in 2014 and will help inform the development of programs and services for Canadians living with neurological conditions, many of whom are older Canadians.

Working with partners to promote healthy aging and to prevent and delay the onset of chronic disease, we will continue to take steps towards improving the health and well-being of Canadian seniors.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Thank you, Ms. Gillis.

Mr. Joanette, please go ahead.

[Dr. Yves Joanette, Scientific Director, Institute of Aging, Canadian Institutes of Health Research]

Mr. Chair, and honourable members of the committee,

on behalf of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), I would like to thank you for the invitation to speak with you today, and to share with you how the CIHR and its Institute of Aging can contribute to providing evidence to assist you in your reflection on the health dimension of the aging workforce.

The aging Canadian population is characterized by the fact that Canadians will work later in their life due to a number of factors, including financial necessity and the desire to pursue an active contribution to society. But as you've just heard from Margaret Gillis, my colleague from the Public Health Agency of Canada, this situation poses new challenges as aging, even active aging, is frequently accompanied by chronic health conditions. Although these conditions can be controlled by lifestyle choices, including physical activity and medications, they can still interfere with the ability of older adults to participate fully in the workforce. This results in multiple impacts, including the fact that maintaining a working contribution to society is known to favour active aging, by itself. The challenge of the aging population also means that younger workers are increasingly contributing as caregivers to older relatives living with major and complex health challenges.

Although these challenges are recognized, the evidence from health research is not always available. It is the mission of the CIHR to provide such evidence. The CIHR was established in 2000 by Parliament as recognition that investments in health and the health care system are part of the Canadian vision of being a caring society.

CIHR's objectives are (a) to excel, according to internationally accepted standards of scientific excellence, in the creation of new knowledge, but also (b) to translate new knowledge into improved health for Canadians and more effective health services and products.

The Government of Canada is currently investing approximately $1 billion in CIHR to provide leadership and support to approximately 14,000 of the best researchers and trainees across the country. CIHR integrates research through a unique interdisciplinary structure made up of 13 virtual institutes. One of these 13 institutes is the Institute of Aging. Its mission is to foster the creation and dissemination of knowledge to ensure active aging, as well as to provide the optimal interventions, services, and health systems needed by older adults facing complex health challenges. Through strategic investments and its investigator-initiated programs, CIHR devoted over $100 million in 2011-12 to research on different aspects of health and aging, ranging from basic biomedical research to patient-oriented research, and from research on health services and systems to social dimensions of aging.

Over the last 12 years, the Institute of Aging has been proactive in ensuring that Canada has the required research capacity to deliver the necessary knowledge related to health and aging. With this research capacity, the Institute of Aging has been engaged in supporting research in priority areas such as cognitive impairment, mobility, and the identification of optimal health services and systems for older persons.

There have been research efforts in the work, aging, and health domains. Researchers such as Professor Lan Gien, from Memorial University in Newfoundland, have been supported by CIHR to help to better understand the strategies that enhance productive and healthy environments for the older workforce. Professor Peter Smith, from the University of Toronto, studies the impact of physical conditions and depression on the labour market participation of older workers in Canada, with a consideration of gender. CIHR has also put in place a research platform that will contribute to these questions in the coming years: the Canadian longitudinal study on aging, or CLSA. This important strategic initiative will provide evidence and an understanding of the internal and external factors determining aging from mid-life to older age. It includes 11 different universities and a national team of more than 160 researchers and collaborators. CLSA will provide information on the changing biological, medical, psychological, social, lifestyle, and economic aspects of 50,000 Canadians aged between 45 and 85, followed for a period of 20 years. To date, more than 25,000 people have signed up.

Participation in the labour force plays an important role in social functioning and has an influence on successful aging through factors such as income and wealth, self-esteem and social standing, stress and occupational exposures. The CLSA will examine how these and other factors influence health outcomes over time.

As the study evolves, the Institute of Aging will explore ways to make sure that Canadian researchers will receive the support needed to take advantage of this large repository of data to inform important questions and provide the necessary evidence through CLSA's directed secondary analyses, for example. We will also ensure that the resulting evidence will be shared in a timely and efficient manner with the public and policy makers.

Such planned actions are consistent with the Institute of Aging's newly introduced 2013-2018 strategic plan. This plan is organized around five priorities. The first two priorities are about understanding the life trajectory of active aging, as well as adding life to the later years. Actions will include work, aging, and health issues. The next two priorities are focused on the interventions and the optimal seamless health services and systems necessary to face the complex health challenges that some older Canadians have to live with. The last priority is about the evidence required to inform all stakeholders on how to empower Canadians regarding their active aging, how to best train the health workforce, and how to optimally adapt knowledge transfer for the aging population.

Along with two other CIHR Institutes—the Institute of Gender and Health and the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis—the Institute of Aging is engaged in exploring a new strategic initiative focused on work and health issues. This initiative would put emphasis on the accommodations required for health-supportive workplaces and work environments. This initiative represents a unique opportunity to include all factors, including social, technological, and management dimensions. This is why we already have had encouraging discussions with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada about this initiative.

CIHR and the Institute of Aging consider that health is an important dimension of the aging workforce challenge. The Institute of Aging will make sure that the necessary evidence will be available for governments, policy makers and the aging Canadian population.

Thank you for your attention.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Thank you very much, Monsieur Joanette, for that presentation.

We'll now move to Monsieur Bédard for his presentation.

[Jean-Luc Bédard, researcher-consultant, Commission nationale sur la participation au marché du travail des travailleuses et travailleurs expérimentés de 55 ans et plus]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, honourable members of the committee, the presentation that I'm making today results from my work that was done at the Commission nationale sur la participation au marché du travail des travailleuses et travailleurs expérimentés de 55 ans et plus.

This commission has done its work at the end of 2010 and 2011. We'll move to the workplace now and I'll describe what has come out as a synthesis of the analysis that I submitted to this commission.

First, I would like to mention the overall title, which is “Diversité des pratiques, souplesse d'application et importance d'une perspective pragmatique”.

Practices in labour organization that are designed to keep employees at work or to bring retirees back to work represent new approaches for businesses, after the wave of early retirements from 1980 to 1990. At the time, that was called “Freedom 55”.

Economic cycles, demographics and labour shortages have contributed to the fact that extending working lives is more and more necessary. But that is not achieved under any conditions. Workers will delay their retirement only when it suits them, meaning when the conditions keep the work interesting when compared to total retirement. A number of studies have highlighted the need for flexible work hours and for working conditions to be reorganized with a view to accommodating an active lifestyle in the workplace.

With its foundation in those known observations, this presentation tries to answer the following questions. What are the results of those accommodations? Are there lessons to be learned? In various kinds of businesses, private or public, large or small, what are the main conditions that hinder or encourage employees to stay at work or retirees to return to work?

From the analysis of significant practices found in the literature, and from discussions with players from a number of different workplaces in Quebec, observations, both general and specific, become clear. We identify four general ones.

First, there is a need for a variety of approaches and practices. One-size-fits-all programs do not hurt, but they cannot achieve the same scope, or the same buy-in, that is the result of a multi-pronged approach that operates in parallel in various ways. Examples might be flexible work hours, physical and ergonomic considerations, training plans for experienced workers, training trainers, planning for the next generation, and promoting awareness about the expertise that experienced workers have. A flexible schedule seems to be of critical importance in encouraging people to stay at work.

The second general observation is that communication and collaboration between everyone in the organization is a vital condition for driving the desired changed. The challenge in this aspect is that the emphasis must be on “everyone”.

The third observation is that the processes we are studying take place in a wider context that shapes the results of the approaches. It is therefore necessary to consider the backgrounds in which the genesis and operation of workplace practices are set. This particularly means the legislation and regulations already in place that encourage, or perhaps limit, the workplace participation of workers 55 and older.

The fourth and last general observation is that business practices designed to keep employees at work or to bring retirees back to work seem to be more widespread in Europe. In Sweden specifically, we see a much more pragmatic approach, and one that is shared by all. That encourages the establishment of effective programming.

I would now like to present the more specific observations. They are six in number.

First, the variety of dimensions, which I mentioned in the general observations, is manifested in different ways depending on the context, the business and the nature of the workforce.

Second, it may be useful, particularly for SMEs, to engage an external agent in order to implement change. The changes will have enhanced credibility, and, as a result, the acceptance by those involved that the changes are legitimate will also be enhanced. This is key to workplace buy-in.

Third, in the case of SMEs, an external agent may be able to partially make up for the lack of a human resources or staffing department with this objective as its role.

I see that time waits for no man and that I will not be able to cover everything. I had some statistics about the significance of SMEs to the Canadian economy.

This particular observation takes on even more importance when we consider that SMEs with fewer than 50 or 100 employees often have no human resources department. So the person running the SME is the one who, among all the other functions, manages retirements or creates the initiatives that will keep, or not keep, employees on the payroll.

Additionally, experienced workers are often recognized for their loyalty, their commitment to the success of the business and their trustworthiness. An example is in customer service. Those characteristics make them all the more attractive to employers because they are those for which young workers, especially those in generation Y, are often criticized. I do not want to generalize or point fingers in the slightest; the comment is not mine, but it is often heard. This combination of circumstances could help to reduce the discrimination that experienced workers often suffer and that, paradoxically, they often perpetuate, especially after the loss of a job.

The final specific observation is that, at the intersection of professional life and family life, a concept mentioned in other presentations, major changes are taking place because of the increasingly healthy life expectancy and the role of older family members. Both public authorities, through their legislation and their control mechanisms, and employers and employee representatives desirous of making it easier to stay at work, must be aware of these aspects and prepare for accommodations as a result.

Finally, beyond the observations, both general and specific, we must deal with the realities of the business context and any possibilities of keeping employees at work or bringing retirees back to work that are provided in forms that are sufficiently interesting to achieve buy-in from experienced workers. They vary greatly depending on the size of the business and its nature; for example, if it is engaged in manufacturing or in services, or whether it is in the public or private sector. In that context, I am thinking about retirement programs that must be considered in terms of intergenerational fairness. We must consider what awaits the younger generations and ask ourselves if it is appropriate to allow the accumulation of several retirement schemes.

One of the main challenges in encouraging participation in the workforce will be to account for both those specific factors and the needs of employers, employees and their representatives when the tools are being designed and put to work.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Thank you for that presentation, and for sharing your general and specific observations with us. I certainly resonates, I suppose depending more or less on where we are in the continuum.

We will now start a line of questioning with Madame Boutin-Sweet.

Go ahead.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the witnesses for being here with us.

Welcome, Mr. Bédard. You are the only one I had not met yet. My first question will in fact be for you.

I am going to talk about workers of 50 years or more, rather than those of 55 years or more. Indeed, as soon as the zero becomes a five, that seems to be very significant in the minds of people and employers.

When a plant or a mill closes, very often, the older employees—that is to say those of 50 or more—don't have the necessary skills to take on another type of job, and don't even have basic computer skills or literacy, and so forth.

Continuous training, including basic skills, provided within a business during a person's entire career could be one solution, if that person requests it, of course.

I would like to know how that could be done. Could the federal government do something in that regard? Do you have any thoughts on a possible cooperative effort involving the government, employers, workers and the unions? Do you have any suggestions to make in that regard?

[Jean-Luc Bédard]

Thank you. Your question is very interesting.

One of the recommendations of the national commission was that certain changes be made to the employment insurance program in order to ensure more training opportunities for experienced workers. That is one possibility.

In addition, several organizations pointed to the importance of making people more aware of the benefits of keeping experienced workers on the job. I skipped that part of my presentation, but the fact remains that a varied group of Canadian, European and international organizations have pointed to the importance of giving greater recognition to those skills and encouraging continuous learning.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Do you think that type of cooperation would be useful?

[Jean-Luc Bédard]

Absolutely.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

I'd like to go back to employment insurance. Workers of 50 years or more have trouble finding other jobs. Under the changes that have just been made to employment insurance, after 18 weeks, the person will be forced to accept a job that pays 80% of his or her salary.

Do you think that that encourages people of 50 years and more to go back to the labour market? Don't you think that this makes their life more difficult?

[Jean-Luc Bédard]

I am not an employment insurance expert, but from the perspective of a researcher, I assume that this type of personal experience does not promote re-entry. It would be preferable to have an employment adjustment program for workers, comprising for instance training and a flexible offer based on the skills needed by experienced workers who lose their jobs.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Employment insurance could no doubt be useful on several levels.

[Jean-Luc Bédard]

You talked about literacy and basic computer skills. That needs to be looked at, according to the profiles.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

The idea is to help people of 50 years or more who have lost their jobs to find new, salaried employment more easily that pays more than 80% of their former salary.

Dr. Joanette, you spoke about studies in the health field, but workers who do physical work, and even those whose work is stressful, have more trouble remaining in the labour market as they get older. Has any research being done on that particular aspect?

My question is also for Ms. Gillis.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Thank you, Madam Boutin-Sweet. You're time is up, but we'll give an opportunity for a response to both.

Go ahead, Monsieur Joanette.

[Dr. Yves Joanette]

I will answer very quickly.

Some research has been done on accommodations that must be made to take into account the changes in physical condition, the quality of attention, cognition and mental health as people get older. There is a lot of information missing. That is why a few months ago, we launched—and this is just a coincidence—a study, intended to lead to a strategic initiative, on the conditions that would encourage workers to stay on the job despite the job requirements that do have an effect on health.

There is a lot of information that we still do not have. We have to acquire more knowledge in this area.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Thank you.

Ms. Gillis, do you wish to make a comment?

[Margaret Gillis]

Yes. While we do more broad-based mental health work, there is one piece of work we've done that might be interesting to you. We work with the Canadian Coalition for Seniors' Mental Health to look at national guidelines on seniors' mental health. We looked at the impacts of depression, for instance, which has many different kinds of sources, some of which could well be within the workplace.

In our work on that, we have guidelines on the broad issue of depression for physicians and health care deliverers as well as for families with older members who might be facing these issues.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Thank you.

We'll now move to Mr. Butt.

Go ahead.

[Brad Butt, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the three of you for being here today.

I think it's an interesting part of the study to look at the health of Canadians and in particular the health of older Canadians and how that relates to their participation in the workforce. So I think you're bringing an important element to the committee today.

Can you give me a general sense of the general health of the workforce, for those say 50 plus in Canada, who are working full- or part-time? Are they generally in fairly good health, or do we have a lot of people in that age category who are still working and who are dealing with significant health issues at the same time they're holding down a job?

[Margaret Gillis]

As I mentioned in my speech, we know that about 90% of people over the age of 65 are facing chronic diseases. So that's a fairly substantive number. The Public Health Agency doesn't keep stats on age groups younger than that specifically. I'm not sure if Mr. Joanette does or not, but obviously in that context we of course want to keep working on ways to keep people healthy. That's one of the reasons we work right across the life course. We know that the biggest impacts often happen in children. So a lot of the work of Public Health involves looking at younger children. Again, we recognize that we have to work right across a lifespan, but that's where the biggest bang for the buck is for long-term health.

I hope that answers the question. That's what we do.

[Brad Butt, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Go ahead, sir.

[Dr. Yves Joanette]

If I could just comment, I certainly agree with these figures. The number of chronic conditions we have to live with, of course, does not diminish with age. It increases. For instance, nearly half of people in their eighties have three or more chronic conditions.

But the fact that someone has a chronic health condition does not invalidate their ability to contribute to the workforce, because we can use a number of strategies involving lifestyle, habits, physical activity, nutrition, and so on to cope with these conditions. Molecules—drugs—can also be used to control these conditions, and if the work environment is a contributing factor to these conditions, then we can facilitate some of these lifestyle activities, including, for instance, physical activities.

The other comment I would like to make briefly is that I think the real first look we will have at all of this longitudinally is through the Canadian longitudinal study on aging, which is starting now. For the next 20 years we'll follow individuals between 45 and 85 years of age, including aspects of their health, biology, cognition, attention, and so on, as well as their environment and their work history and how they contribute to work.

I think we will be getting this information very soon and we will make sure this evidence will be brought to your table.