Human Resources Committee on May 28th, 2015

[Louise Levonian]

It's no problem. I get a lot.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

That's great. Thanks very much.

On the youth employment strategy, in 2005-06 the youth employment strategy served 113,000 youth. Currently, the most recent stats say that last year it was 54,000, which means a loss of 50,000 young people having access to that program. Then we're projecting, as was mentioned earlier, another $20 million cut in that program. Where is the help for them? Where are young Canadians getting support from that program?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

I think I mentioned at the outset that there are a variety of ways we help young people, and getting into jobs training is foremost among them. I want to emphasize the importance of the Canada apprenticeship grant. For too long our suite of policies ignored training for the trades. That grant has now gone to over 300,000 young people, 500,000 grants to 300,000 young people to help them go and get certified and get their journeyman or journey woman tickets and work in high-demand jobs.

We're also targeting resources to help young people transition from one career to another. For example, there are 9,000 working-age veterans who are released from the military every year. We want to ensure that they, many of them young, get recognized by the system for the skills that they accumulated while they were in the forces so that they are automatically qualified to work in high-demand jobs.

I was just at BCIT in British Columbia last week where they have a program specifically designed to help hundreds of young veterans get a course credit for many of the skills they built while they were in the forces so that they can then convert those skills into the civilian marketplace. We announced funding for BCIT to expand this program to seven other sites across the country so that it will be available to any veteran who ultimately wants it.

That's just one example of how we're using training to bridge and build skills for in-demand jobs.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Thank you, Minister.

We're way over on that one, but I'll allow that latitude for other members as well, if it's required.

Mr. Mayes.

[Colin Mayes, Conservative, Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Thank you, Minister, for being here, and thanks to your officials.

One of the things that I want to talk about is the universal child care benefit. When I was younger, there was a baby bonus, and I always remember my mother putting that away into savings for my post-secondary education and that of my siblings. I was just wondering, if parents had the substance that they didn't need to use that money right away and they decided to put it away, whether they could save that $1,920 for six years and then put it in a registered education savings plan. That's bumped up by 20% by the Government of Canada, and with a 5% return, you're getting about $2,400 a year multiplied by six, and then you get into the $720 a year with the same.... We're up to about $25,000, and there are no strings attached. That can be done if the parents can afford to put that away.

Do you foresee that this is going to actually influence the number of student loans that are really needed? We're going to see this money that's going to be available to parents to put away for their children's future education.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

Absolutely. It's a very good question.

In fact, I was recently at the Fred Barrett Arena in the south end of town here, and I met Trevor, who is a resident of Osgoode just south of Parliament Hill. He has five kids, all of them over the age of six, and he'll be getting $720 a year for each and every one of them. He told me his plan was to put that money in registered education savings plans for each one of them. That will take an enormous bite out of the cost of post-secondary education for those five kids who might not otherwise have an opportunity to go and learn.

The point of this story is that every family is different. A one-size-fits-all, government-knows-best program that ignores 90% of kids would not help people like Trevor. For one, government day cares would not serve him because his kids are all too old for day care; whereas the universal child care benefit is universal, so everybody under 18 is eligible, and their parents can invest that money in the ways that will deliver the best result for their kids. We believe in choice. We believe in moms and dads.

[Colin Mayes, Conservative, Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

We could have almost called that a universal child care benefit savings plan.

What is the cost of that? There is going to be a number of children whose parents are going to receive this, and there's going to be an increase in cost, but overall, what is the cost? Can you extrapolate that with regard to, you know, when you give somebody a cheque, most often they spend it, and then they pay GST and they put money into the economy, and the money comes back. Is there a forecast about the real cost to taxpayers?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

The original universal child care benefit cost around $1.9 billion, and the expanded is now $4.9 billion in the 2015-16 fiscal year.

[Colin Mayes, Conservative, Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

That's a lot cheaper than a universal child care institutionalized type of program where it could be up to $15 billion by having—

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

If you believe the supporters of a national government-run day care program, they say it would cost about 1% of GDP. I think that's probably low. It probably would cost a lot more than that, but we have an economy that's coming on $2 trillion, so that's just under $20 billion a year for a national government-run day care program. I don't know where you'd get that kind of money. You'd have to massively increase taxes, run enormous deficits, and probably cut other programs to find the money. Then after all that—

[Colin Mayes, Conservative, Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

It only benefits—

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

—and 90% of Canadians don't want that type of day care for their kids. They prefer other options, and it would do nothing for older kids. That's why Canadians consistently reject that approach.

[Colin Mayes, Conservative, Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

This is more of a direct benefit.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

That's right. You cut out all the administrative and bureaucratic costs by sending the money directly to the end user, the moms and dads.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Thank you very much.

That completes the first round of questioning.

We'll move on to the second round.

Mr. Nicholls.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Minister, Mr. Davies and Mr. Cuzner asked about the youth employment strategy and I also have a few questions about that.

The department tells a different story from yours. You talked about the unused amounts, but I would rather talk about the inefficiency in managing the distribution of funds and the implementation of the programs.

A document from the department focuses on the expiry of funds. It says: “The difference is due to delays in implementing Skills Link and Career Focus projects”.

We have seen many problems with the implementation of this program, especially in Quebec. My colleague from Saint-Lambert repeatedly shared them with your predecessor, Mr. Kenney.

Can you tell us what is causing these delays in implementing Skills Link and Career Focus projects?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

The program in question seeks to connect young people with jobs by building a bridge between their current skills and those they will need in the future.

I am certainly available to work with the MPs from Quebec to identify ways to improve the administration of the program. If there are technical problems you want to talk about, please point them out.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

You know as well as I do that the needs of employers are time dependent. Young people are looking for work. If the way the program operates is ineffective and there is a disconnect with the funding of the program, flaws arise in the system.

Here is my next question. Has the unused $32 million been reallocated and, if so, for what purpose?

[Ian Shugart]

An amount of $12 million will be carried over from this year to next year.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

So it will still be for this program, but it will be carried over to next year.

[Ian Shugart]

That's right.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

What do you intend to do to ensure that the 2015-16 funding for the youth employment strategy will be used as effectively and fully as possible?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

Are you asking what will be done to ensure that the funding—

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

How will you improve the effectiveness of the program?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

That is a challenge for every program, all the time.

Mr. Chair, we work very hard every day to improve the effectiveness of our programs. I think the results of our investments are impressive overall, and if my officials want to talk about any improvements, the floor is theirs.