Evidence of meeting #3 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was system.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Director, Public Affairs and Stakeholder Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
NDP
Director, Public Affairs and Stakeholder Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
I cannot discuss all that, as things change. For the time being, only the name is changing.
NDP
Alexandre Boulerice NDP Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC
Will the worker training still focus on skills development?
Director, Public Affairs and Stakeholder Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
As I said, the department's mandate and programs are not changing.
NDP
Alexandre Boulerice NDP Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC
If the mandate and programs are not changing, why is the department changing its name?
Director, Public Affairs and Stakeholder Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
A decision was made to change its name, but its mandate will remain the same.
NDP
Alexandre Boulerice NDP Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC
I am looking at this from the point of view of taxpayers who are telling themselves that the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development will continue to take care of human resources and skills development, but that it will no longer have the same name, for no specific reason.
The cost of changing the department's name is already up to $42,000. How much do you think the final cost will be?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Phil McColeman
I'll just remind the witnesses that, as you well know, there are certain questions being proposed here that are perhaps out of your hands in terms making a response.
I'll remind members around the table, please, that our witnesses are here to testify about aspects of the legislation we're looking at and its clauses, and not to be speculating about or defending decisions made at the political level.
Director, Public Affairs and Stakeholder Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Regarding costs, as I said, that will be part of ongoing activities. Funding will be transferred from another area. Therefore, these are not new costs.
NDP
Alexandre Boulerice NDP Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC
So you have a transition period to go from the old name to the new name. Isn't there a risk of creating confusion for some people, given that, unless I am mistaken, the two names will coexist for a period of time?
Director, Public Affairs and Stakeholder Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
When people need services, they contact Service Canada. In a way, that's the face of the department.
I don't think this will be an issue for the general public.
However, I would be speculating, in that case.
NDP
NDP
Alexandre Boulerice NDP Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC
Changes are being made. I think that everyone can appreciate some of them, such as the possibility to submit more applications online. This is 2013, the Internet age. Most people do their banking transactions and pay their credit cards online.
However, when it comes to students issues, anything that has to do with identity theft is a concern for me. That's unfortunately an increasingly prevalent phenomenon. Some defrauders take an imprint of an ATM card or steal other very important information. It's nice to be able to offer students an online service that may ultimately cost less.
What measures have you introduced to avoid identity theft and fraudulent applications?
Director, Learning Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Thank you for your question. If that's okay with you, I will answer it in English.
We have been looking at different solutions that are available in the marketplace for identity verification. Many of the financial institutions have been moving in that direction. The way they have been doing it is that, when the identity is verified on line, they ask the student or the applicant a number of questions that only that particular individual is expected to know, in order to minimize the risk.
We'll take all the necessary steps. We'll find the solution that best suits our need. We are exploring those options right now.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Phil McColeman
Thank you for your answer.
We're going to move on now to Mrs. McLeod.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the officials. Hopefully, over the next couple of years, this is just one of a number of times we're going to have the opportunity to chat.
I want to just make a quick comment on the name change. Certainly when many of us look at Human Resources, we think of it as the department that takes care of the internal workings of an organization. So to me, ESDC is a much more fulsome description of what the department is and what it does, as opposed to that confusion where people might think it's just the department that takes care of the federal government's employee services and benefits. Certainly, that's what many people perceive Human Resources to be. That's just a comment.
As I read through it, it was a bit of a puzzle to me. As we're modernizing and we're looking at electronic options, I was actually quite surprised that it requires legislation. Could you maybe talk a little about why it actually needs a legislative change? Many people modernize their ability to electronically interact, but they don't need legislative changes to do that.
Director, Learning Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
This is based on our consultations with our legal services. For a student loan agreement, for example, if it is contested in a court of law, their advice to us—to ensure that the loan agreement is considered a valid loan agreement—was that it might not only be useful but also perhaps necessary to have it specified in the legislation that the Government of Canada can enter into agreements electronically. Then that kind of agreement would stand up in a court of law. If not, they were not sure whether or not that would be the case.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
On the Salaries Act, I guess that is more definitive in terms of the legislative structure. Would anyone care to talk about the name changes and the legislation that surrounds that piece?
David Dendooven Director of Strategic Policy, Machinery of Government, Privy Council Office
The Salaries Act, of course, enumerates all of the ministers in cabinet. Therefore, if we are changing the name of the department, we need to change the name in the Salaries Act as well, the name of the minister for whom he is responsible.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Of course, in this case, we also have the additional minister who needs to be identified. Is that...?
Director of Strategic Policy, Machinery of Government, Privy Council Office
Yes. So additionally, we are modifying the Salaries Act as well to reflect the name of a new minister. So that was added as well. We took the opportunity to change the Salaries Act, to change it at this time as well, through the BIA.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
My next question focuses in on temporary foreign workers and how you can do a comparison. Let's say I'm an employer in Sun Peaks and I need to hire a ski patroller from Europe for the winter season. There's no one in Canada. Can you talk about how it used to be and how it's going to be with the new changes?