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.
Director, Learning Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
No.
November 7th, 2013 / 3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Armstrong Conservative Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS
How much do you anticipate the students' wait times are going to be reduced because of the new system we put in place? I hear complaints from students that from the time they apply to the time they get their money there is a bit of wait time. It causes difficulty for many students, particularly low-income students, in paying their tuition on time. Do you think this system is going to streamline things enough to end that problem?
Director, Learning Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Yes, it will. Together with other measures that we have been implementing since 2009 the students have already started receiving their money a little earlier. This will make it even easier.
Our intent is that by the time classes start students should have their money in their bank account.
Conservative
Scott Armstrong Conservative Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS
I think that would be welcome news for students across the country. I think one of the requests from student groups is that we find a way to streamline this to stop that gap.
Many students worry because they are in school, going to classes, have their meal plan, and are not sure if their loan is going to be approved. So this process will streamline that and probably also make it easier to detect any problems with the loan application and get back to the students earlier if there is some issue or if they're missing required documents, or that sort of thing.
Do you anticipate that will help that problem as well?
Director, Learning Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Exactly. So now it will take much less time to correct any error in documentation. Absolutely.
Conservative
Scott Armstrong Conservative Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Mr. Chair, let me first thank both the government and the official opposition for inviting me to take part in the first round of questioning. I appreciate this kinder, gentler approach. I know it was on division, but nonetheless I appreciate it.
I thank the witnesses for being here today.
Coming off the focus of Scott's questioning, I think students are more enabled to embrace technology. Obviously they're far more comfortable with it. Again, I think this will probably be of help. But usually there's some kind of cost savings associated with a move toward this.
I remember being in Fisheries and Oceans and all the moneys that were going to be saved when we closed lighthouses and went with navigational aids, only to realize that the navigational aids have to be maintained as well. There weren't a lot of savings.
Does the department see cost savings here? Can you arrive at a number?
Director, Learning Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Yes, we estimate that the Government of Canada will be saving about $9 million to $10 million per year from these initiatives.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Again, when you look at groups that are able to embrace the technology.... For example, with Veterans Affairs' offices being closed and veterans being asked to get into mobile device applications and that kind of stuff, they're not as readily positioned to embrace the technology. We can also look at what took place with EI processing where 600 jobs were cut as we tried to walk our way through the investments in technology. When the technology worked well, when the square peg went in the square hole, and the round peg went into the round hole, you were getting the cheque within 21 days. That was good, but if anything was out of line that application was spit out, and it was not uncommon to see a wait of five, six, seven, or eight weeks.
Do you anticipate anything like that with this particular system?
Director, Learning Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
First of all, this will not be a mandatory system. So anyone who wants to use a paperless system can.
We consulted student groups before we proposed this.
Liberal
Director, Learning Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
No.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
It's wise now to take that approach of having no reduction in staff.
I would think the business community would be more comfortable as well with the processing of temporary foreign workers. Have business groups been calling for the processing of temporary foreign workers, less paper, more...?
Director General, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Yes, definitely. We've heard from employers for months and months that they like an online system we were piloting.
We have issues now because there are some parts of the application process that we can't put online, such as electronic payment, for example. Employers struggle when they can't do the whole thing online. When they can, they're fully supportive. It makes their life a lot easier. They simply put the information online. They also know that at our end we save a lot of time, because rather than having someone manually put that information into the system, it appears on the screen and is already in sync with our foreign workers system.
Obviously from our perspective it's an efficiency gain, and one of the things we've heard from employers is that they don't like our processing times. They want faster service. This is an important step in terms of clearing out a blockage in the processing system in order to let us be more efficient and respond to them.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
You're not looking at any staff reductions within those departments currently, though, as you get the system ready and move toward a more automated system? I think what happened with EI processing was the fact that they let the people go, they let the bodies go, before they were up and running, and the education process took place with the users. That's to my mind.
Director General, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
I can't speak to the EI side of things. I can say that we have looked at this proposal around the electronic administration of the program largely from an efficiency perspective. There are any number of inefficiencies in the current processing, including, for example, employers who sometimes fax an application three times because they're not sure that we got the fax the first couple of times. Or if they need to update one form, they send in the whole package again.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Yes, but within the department, you're not seeing any staff reductions?
Director General, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Our focus has been strictly on finding efficiencies to streamline the processing system so that we can get the same or better outcomes with a faster process.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Phil McColeman
Thank you, Mr. Cuzner.
Members, that ends the seven-minute rounds.
We'll move on to Monsieur Boulerice for the next round.
You have five minutes.
NDP
Alexandre Boulerice NDP Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all the witnesses for coming here today to answer our questions. That is greatly appreciated. You can provide some extremely concrete clarifications about the amendments you are proposing to improve services to the public.
I have a few very simple questions to begin with. Will the department change its structure?
Director, Public Affairs and Stakeholder Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Owing to the name change?
Director, Public Affairs and Stakeholder Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development