Evidence of meeting #139 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was workers.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Foothills, CPC
Ms. Minister, can you tell me the breakdown of that $35 million, the money that's going to the audit inspections and what may be allocated to other support systems for the employers themselves?
Leslie MacLean Senior Associate Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development and Chief Operating Officer for Service Canada, Department of Employment and Social Development
Mr. Chair, I'm happy to answer the question.
In budget 2018, $15 million was set aside. It is not part of the supplementary estimates. I'll ask our chief financial officer rep to confirm that.
That work, as the minister noted, is to increase the number of on-site and unannounced inspections we are doing. Of about 22,000 approvals for the labour market impact assessment that are made every year, our program of on-site reviews and inspections is about 2,800, so it's slightly over, and of course, with a risk-based focus. We will work, as the minister noted, with the agricultural sector and all other sectors to ensure that we're respecting whatever protocols are unique to the workplace, whether they be biosecurity or other.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Hajdu, for coming back. We appreciate very much that you took the time to come back to our committee and answer some questions from all of us.
One of the greatest announcements I certainly had in my riding of Saint John—Rothesay was the Human Development Council’s UYES! project through skills link. It was very important for me as a member of Parliament to come to Ottawa, advocate on behalf of the riding and deliver on things like the Canada child benefit, housing strategies and the poverty reduction strategy, but I was determined to try to deliver programs to my riding that could break the generational cycle of poverty that unfortunately my riding does have. The skills link program, the UYES! program, will help 200 at-risk youth in my riding. I see it happening now through the Outflow men's shelter. They're working with youth downstairs to develop carpentry skills and training. I see it upstairs where they're getting increased education so they can move on to post-secondary and ultimately help them gain employment in the riding. The impact of that investment on dozens of youth in the riding is profound.
Can you tell us about the impact of investments in skills training through skills link and skills boost on the lives of Canadian youth, in particular at-risk youth, in my riding or in ridings right across the country?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
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.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
I had the opportunity to tour the program recently, two weeks back. You have youth learning carpentry skills. Those youth, once they get those skills, will be employed by a social enterprise, Catapult Construction. Catapult will renovate older homes in my riding that ultimately the youth and their families may live in, so it's the perfect kind of program that can break that generational cycle.
Thanks for that, Minister.
I do want to switch to Canada summer jobs, a wonderful program, again in my riding, which hired over 350 youth and put almost $1 million into the riding of Saint John—Rothesay.
Last year our committee undertook a study of experiential learning and pathways to employment for Canadian youth. During that study we heard from many witnesses who felt that the Canada summer jobs program could be expanded, and, in fact, ought to be expanded in order to provide Canadian youth with more work-integrated learning opportunities.
I was thrilled when I learned that your department would be expanding the Canada summer jobs program in 2019 in order to allow all youth between the ages of 15 and 30 to qualify for jobs funded through that program.
Can you tell us what impact you believe the expanded eligibility criteria will have on Canadian youth, particularly for those who have graduated from post-secondary institutions and are looking to break into fields in which past work experience in the field is often a prerequisite for employment?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Thank you very much, MP Long.
I think you're touching on two distinct streams we're working on. One is the Canada summer jobs program, which will help ensure that students—actually, all youth this year, because we've changed the criteria since many of you advocated to make sure that it was available to all youth—will have an opportunity to get that sometimes first job experience. There is also the expansion of the student work placements in budget 2018, which give them industry-specific experience.
I will say that under our government we have doubled the number of jobs for youth. The Harper Conservatives had the worst youth unemployment rate since the nineties. In contrast, every summer we're providing over 70,000 young people with that valuable work experience you're talking about.
I too have met the Canada Summer Jobs young people in my riding. I have a very large riding and it's partly rural and partly urban. For many of these folks—I have 12 first nations—this is their first job for the summer. This is the first time in their life that they've had paid employment. They now have a little bit of money in their pocket to spend on school or other things that they need, but they also have that first reference, and we know that the first experience and reference are critical for the next job.
More than that, they also have that confidence, because oftentimes—and I'm sure you've met youth in your own community—people who have not had that first paid experience lack confidence in their ability and their capability to actually land a job and lack confidence about how it's going to be once they're in the workplace.
The Canada summer jobs program is a really safe place for people to experience that first paid job. The employers who apply oftentimes have done it for years. They know how to work with youth, and they know the kinds of supports that youth need in the workplace. This year of course we're even strengthening the obligation of employers, to make sure they're providing that mentorship and leadership in the workplace.
I want to thank you for your work, and make sure you continue to meet those young people, because they will continue to inspire you.
Liberal
NDP
Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, Minister.
I would like to talk to you about a concern we share—integration of youth into employment. I myself worked with troubled youth for nearly 20 years.
Last January, I held an economic table that brought together four economic development organizations from my riding: Développement économique de la MRC des Maskoutains, Développement économique et local de la MRC d'Acton, Saint-Hyacinthe Technopole and the SADC de la région d'Acton.
Employment integration organizations also participated in the table, such as Johnson County's Carrefour jeunesse-emploi, but there are many others in my riding, such as Parcours Formation and Espace carrière.
Of course, we have talked about the labour shortage, an issue that affects all businesses. Businesses in my riding have to buy school buses to pick up employees in the Montreal metropolitan region or have their own buses to travel from downtown to the villages where their plants are located. I was asked a question about a project or a program I have been talking about since we took a trip together. During a trip to Turin, where I joined you, we visited an organization whose experience really interested me. That organization was doing employment integration and had responders who could move around. I'm sure you remember it very well.
Employers told me about that difficulty. When they integrate a young person into a job, they have the tools needed to provide them with support in terms of everything that has to do with the job, but, when it comes to young people's more personal problems, employers often feel that they lack tools.
The organization we met with would send a responder to the employer, as needed. If a young person was experiencing difficulties at work—be it because one of their friends died of an overdose the day before, their mother experienced domestic violence, or they were late in the morning after going to get food for their family from the food bank—those organizations would support employers, beyond the integration of young people into employment.
I think there is a shortage of community organizations taking care of those issues. It would help if the government supported employers in terms of employment integration aspects where they lack tools. Those are often small SMEs. Eighty-five per cent of our economy is made up of small businesses that lack resources to support those young people.
Those employers are losing to retirement employees with a great deal of knowledge and, more importantly, love for the profession. I visit a lot of businesses, and it is always nice to see a sparkle in the eyes of someone who has been doing the same job for 30 years and still talks about it passionately. Yet, that employee will often leave before a young replacement is integrated into the job.
When we carried out a study on learning, we talked about the idea of mentorship programs. Those programs should extend to more businesses, so that they can keep their employees who are planning to retire as long as it takes for young employees to be integrated.
We are talking about money that has been spent, but I would like to hear you speak to new programs and new support measures that could be implemented to integrate young people into jobs.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Thank you very much for the question.
I will say that I share your passion for making sure that young people have the supports—not just the job skills in particular, but also the supports—that help them with all of the other problems they experience in their lives. I think that MP Long spoke about an organization that is doing that.
The funding we provide for, say, the training through skills link can be augmented by partnerships in the community. Many of these skills link deliverers all across the country—and that's why we actually deliver this program through partnerships with not-for-profit organizations—do form those partnerships with other organizations that are providing the add-on and the wraparound support for a young person to succeed.
I'll also congratulate you on your new leader being present in the House. That's fantastic. It'll be great to see what the NDP plan will say about investing in youth unemployment. In the last plan, the budget was $25 million for job creation and the same arbitrary number for housing. It's a lot more expensive than that and I will tell you that investment is worth every dollar.
As we reshape the youth employment strategy, we'll be moving forward to reflect the kinds of comments that we've heard through the various consultations we've held from all of the people who are delivering this program across Canada They all pretty much say the same thing as you, which is that young people need extra supports to succeed, so we're going to continue on that path.
Thank you.
NDP
Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Mentorship is the second aspect of my question. SMEs should be given financial support to enable them to keep on employees planning to retire for as long is it takes for them to impart their knowledge to a young employee. SMEs are telling me that they don't have the means to pay wages to both people at the same time.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Thank you very much, Madam Sansoucy.
I would say that we have been doing a tremendous amount of work investing in small businesses and the needs of small businesses, and economic development. I will also say that there's always an opportunity for businesses to be creative and innovative in the way that they look at their labour shortages. I would say that ensuring that youth have an opportunity to participate fully in the labour market is a real, great opportunity for innovative small and medium-sized businesses that are looking for new ways to solve old problems.
Many of the businesses I visited across the country are taking advantage of things like our subsidized student work placement program, which actually provides a subsidy of 50% for the students' wages, up to 60% if the person is a woman, or indigenous, or otherwise further disadvantaged from entering the labour market. That is a direct support for small businesses and medium-sized businesses, in that it covers and it compensates them for the cost of hiring new talent. It also provides that small business the opportunity of all that enthusiasm, and passion, and to-the-minute, up-to-date learning that the student is learning in their relevant course.
I will continue to invest in student work placements. It's a way to support small and medium-sized businesses, but also to ensure that young people get that very critical, sector-specific experience.
Liberal
South Surrey—White Rock, Lib.
Thank you.
I was elected about 14 months ago, and at that point in time the Canada summer jobs and the attestation issue were significant in the campaign that I was a part of. I wonder if the attestation as it existed then actually impacted the number of jobs we were able to provide or the number of applicants it had. I know you've made a number of significant changes since that point in time. I'm wondering how the experience that I went through informed the types of initiatives that are coming out at this point in time, whether we're seeing an increase, a decrease, the impact, in fact, that role has played.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Thank you very much, MP Hogg.
I will say that, yes, it was a very vigorous conversation last year in terms of Canada summer jobs. If you had told me I would speak that much about Canada summer jobs when I first got the job, I might not have believed you. I'm glad we were able to speak so much about it, despite the fact that oftentimes they were vigorous conversations.
The unintended consequence was that many people found out about Canada summer jobs as an opportunity to hire students who previously didn't even know the program existed. Some people say there's no such thing as bad press. I will say, in terms of Canada summer jobs, it helped us reach our target of 70,000 jobs. There was no dip in the number of jobs available to young people across the country.
We, as you know, worked very closely with all of the different stakeholders who felt uncomfortable with the process. We wanted to be very clear, as we were in our communications last year, that this was about activities and job descriptions and not about beliefs and values. We heard back from many of the groups we worked with, including faith leaders from all different faiths, that they were much more comfortable with the process this year and they understood our goals of ensuring that students weren't put into positions where they were asked to violate the established rights of other people in this country. I think we were able to do that in a way that lent comfort to groups that this really wasn't about a judgment on their faiths or beliefs; rather, it was around protecting the integrity of those positions for young people.
South Surrey—White Rock, Lib.
As a result of any of those changes, have the applications this year increased or decreased? What is the impact in terms of the applications this year?
Senior Associate Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development and Chief Operating Officer for Service Canada, Department of Employment and Social Development
As the minister noted, year over year—and I believe I referred to this in my testimony at the last committee—our experience had been successive increases in numbers of applications received and in numbers of jobs requested. We're still finalizing the program for summer 2019, because, of course, the applications just closed in early February, and we're frantically beavering through.
What I would note is we seem to have slightly fewer actual applications in jobs, but an over $125-million request in the value of the jobs being proposed. That speaks to, of course, employers respecting increases in minimum wages, but it also reflects, I suspect, a desire to create longer jobs, and as the minister noted, quality jobs for youth.
Those are preliminary numbers for summer 2019 because, of course, we're still just finalizing all the applications and requests we got.
South Surrey—White Rock, Lib.
Thank you.
I also note there has been a reduction in defaults on student loans from something like 14% to 10% over the past seven years. What program approaches have been in place to see that reduction, and what other strategies might you be putting in place to see if there can be a further reduction from the 10%?
