Thank you very much, MP Long.
You've touched on a program that's very close to my heart, and I don't need to remind everyone about the work that I used to do. I truly do believe, and this is what drew me to politics, that when we invest in people who are furthest from the labour market, the euphemism at ESDC, that means people who have the hardest time getting a job, the hardest time getting the first job and the hardest time getting a break, really, when we invest in people through skills link and the youth employment strategy we're investing in our own potential as a country. When we don't invest in vulnerable people, whom we saw the previous government repeatedly ignore, not only is it a lost opportunity, but it's also an expense.
MP Long, you would know that when we delay our investment in young people, they fall further away from opportunity. That hopelessness and that lack of opportunity and that prolonged poverty end up putting someone from the revenue side of the sheet, to use a finance term, onto the expense side of the sheet. That's what we ultimately want to avoid. This is a social justice argument but this is also an economic argument.
Ensuring the investment of $339 million over three years for Canada summer jobs, and an additional $395 million for Canada summer jobs, also addresses more than 33,000 vulnerable youth so they can develop the skills they need. We almost doubled the skills link program when we took over. That was about ensuring that everybody has that fair chance to succeed.
I'm really glad that you raised that program. To me, this is one of those long-term investments that's going to pay off not just for Canada while we have the opportunity to be government but for successive generations.