Evidence of meeting #141 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 recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Ramesh Sangha Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Do you have any suggestions for the federal government to start with?
National Director, Social and Economic Policy Department, Canadian Labour Congress
Yes. I think the federal government needs to invest much more in literacy and essential skills. This is a fundamental deficiency for vulnerable workers in precarious employment. Low-paid workers are often not the workers who receive training in the workplace. It's typically the higher-paid, already more highly educated employees who receive the lion's share of training. The people who need it the most are the ones least likely to receive training, and they're often the individuals who need basic investments in literacy, numeracy, digital skills and the like.
That would be a first step. I think the Canada training benefit, the new benefit announced in the budget, also needs to be reviewed, if it's going to be accessible to low-income vulnerable workers.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Thank you, Chair.
Ms. Regehr, this follows up on your statement that EI is harder to get. Would you not acknowledge two significant changes our government made that speak to the issue of precarious employment and the area of training? One is that we eliminated the new entrant and the “re-entrant after a period of time” minimum criterion from the EI system, which was a punitive 900-and-some hours. The data showed it was impacting women and youth more than any other demographic. The other is that we are recently allowing significant training initiatives, with the eligibility of receiving EI benefits while in full-time training.
Would you not acknowledge that these speak to some degree to the issues around precariousness?
Chairperson, Basic Income Canada Network
I would say certainly. I think there are many good things in the system that are working that way and need to continue to work that way. My major concern and the concern of people in our network, looking more broadly at the economy, is to identify who the people are who are in the most precarious situations who are not going to get access to those kinds of benefits, EI and—
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Yes, but your generalized statement that EI is now harder to get is not really reflective of the reality, when I look at those two areas.
Chairperson, Basic Income Canada Network
Yes, there have been improvements. I started working with Employment and Immigration 30 years ago. It was better then.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
We all acknowledge that the focus of this study is not toward those who choose to follow precarious employment but those who find themselves with no other option but precarious employment. Based on that, do you agree that an increase in precarious work increases or decreases economic activity or economic growth?
Chairperson, Basic Income Canada Network
There are a number of effects. If you have fewer people able to access the job market, and in Canada—
Director, Skills and Immigration Policy, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Is the issue about whether or not work precarity increases economic efficiency?
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
No, not efficiency; from your membership, does it have an impact on increasing economic activity?
Director, Skills and Immigration Policy, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
I'd have to see the correlation. What I would be concerned about, as we go forward with this...and our membership would agree. I like this overlay of...and that's the qualitative piece in the numbers. This is non-standard work. We can agree to some of these.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
But would precarious, in your opinion, increase economic activity or decrease it?
Director, Skills and Immigration Policy, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
It would be unrelated.
Liberal
Chairperson, Basic Income Canada Network
More security, as shown by Canadian benefits like the Canada child benefit, means more productivity, more access to the economy and more economic activity.
Director, Skills and Immigration Policy, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
I'll just flip that, then. If there are higher costs for business, it will have an impact that is not necessarily positive on the economy.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Okay.
I have a question for C.D. Howe. Do you have any data on which sectors or industries rely on contract workers the most? Do you have specific data on it that you could provide to the committee?
Senior Policy Analyst, Toronto Office, C.D. Howe Institute
Statistics Canada basically provides data on the number of people in temporary work by different industries. As I mentioned, the main focus was services, but within services there are some variations. I don't have the specific list, but education, health and accommodation industries have the highest—
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Excuse me; do you have specific data that C.D. Howe might have prepared on its own or accessed on its own?
Senior Policy Analyst, Toronto Office, C.D. Howe Institute
It's through Statistics Canada.
