Evidence of meeting #28 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 program.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Dan Ruimy Liberal Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
While it's managed by the province, in order to get into the program, someone has to go through the federal, don't they?
Acting Director General, Employment Program Policy and Design Directorate, Department of Employment and Social Development
No, they don't. Through the transfers, the labour market development agreements, which are funded through EI or the Canada job fund, which is out of the consolidated revenue fund, we transfer the dollars to the provinces and the territories, and they deliver the design and deliver programs.
Liberal
Dan Ruimy Liberal Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
They deliver them, but in order for me to get into the program, I actually had to go through the federal....
Acting Director General, Employment Program Policy and Design Directorate, Department of Employment and Social Development
No. In B.C., for example, you would walk into a WorkBC office, and there would be somebody there to take your name and your concerns, and they would set you up with a counsellor.
Liberal
Dan Ruimy Liberal Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
Do you feel we're doing enough to connect people living in poverty with these types of programs?
Acting Director General, Employment Program Policy and Design Directorate, Department of Employment and Social Development
In terms of outreach, there's probably some work to be done. We are trying to work more closely with the provinces and territories to support them in whatever outreach activities they need to do. In terms of our programs on the federal side, we're working very closely with our stakeholders. Again, when it comes to poverty, I'm talking about the youth employment strategy and some of our flagship programs. It's really about getting to the youth as early as possible, preferably while they're still in education and before they tumble into poverty.
Liberal
Dan Ruimy Liberal Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
I think it's great that we're reaching out to the youth. My focus is on a lot of people I know who can't find jobs or who need to be retrained. They need to get back into the workforce. They're finding themselves just not knowing where to go. That's part of the challenge, because we do have lots of programs, but they don't seem to be reaching the people who need them. Youth aside, I'm talking about the higher age range of people who, for whatever reason, are not working, who can't find a job, or who are getting back into the workforce. They're the ones who are struggling.
I'm wondering how we are reaching them.
November 15th, 2016 / 9:30 a.m.
Acting Director General, Employment Program Policy and Design Directorate, Department of Employment and Social Development
As I said, a lot of it is on the provincial side, of course, because the programs are the provinces' responsibility. Every labour market is different. We leave it up to the local labour market authorities to reach out. On the LMDA side, for example, we are working on systems that allow provinces and territories, as soon as somebody becomes unemployed, to contact them and tell them that there are programs available and counsellors available to bring them back into the labour market. Figuring out how to reach these individuals is an ongoing priority for us.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'm not a permanent member of the committee, but I found that the subject and presentations were interesting.
I'm going to start with you, Madam Dryburgh, on the stats that are here for the registered education savings plan. You have the after-tax family income quintile and the percentage of those with an RESP. Do you have information around the average savings within each of those quintiles? Of course, if lower-income families managed to save a lot, that could provide some real access for post-secondary education. If they haven't managed to save a lot, then the fact that they've opened an RESP is kind of a moot point in terms of their children actually having access to education.
Do you have those figures?
Director, Tourism and Centre for Education Statistics, Statistics Canada
We do. We have those figures. I would have put them in if I'd had more than seven minutes. You do see a difference. The higher quintiles have greater savings, but they're not insignificant savings for those in the lowest areas.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
For the lowest quintile, what would the average savings be?
Director, Tourism and Centre for Education Statistics, Statistics Canada
I'd have to check and get back to you.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
Okay, if you could provide that to the committee, that would be very helpful.
Thank you.
Madam Isaak, you mentioned the importance of post-secondary education. Of course, one of the barriers we have right now is the 2% cap on post-secondary student support for indigenous students. Are there any plans to lift that cap at this point?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Education and Social Development Programs and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
We are working on increasing our investment through our partnership with ESDC as well around what's happening with the increases to the Canada student loan and grant program. We're working in partnership to try to find the best tools to increase the amount of support available for indigenous students, so we're making modest increases in the post-secondary education support programs, recognizing that there's more to do. There's a backlog of student demand for those programs.
As I mentioned in my remarks, we want to work with students and parents and communities and universities to really understand what the barriers are and to look at strategies going forward to try to, perhaps, redesign the program in some way to better meet the needs of the students and the backlog that exists right now.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
That's so important, but you're not answering the real question. At this point, there's no plan to lift the 2% cap.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Education and Social Development Programs and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
There hasn't been a decision made specifically on that program.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
Thank you very much.
I think my next series of questions will be for Madam Bertrand. They're around retraining. We've heard from the government some expression that the job churn, or moving from one job to the next, will be part of the overall labour situation in the coming years, and that will require a lot of retraining.
Is the government putting into place a plan around retraining Canadians for those jobs, with that job churn? Is there a plan for post-secondary students coming out of post-secondary education to actually have access to additional skills that they may need in the job market?
I also want to cite a program from New Brunswick for truckers. There was a shortage of truckers in New Brunswick. As a result, there were applications through the temporary foreign workers program. This seems to me to be a real problem in our overall approach to training programs. If there is a shortage of workers in a high unemployment zone like New Brunswick, should there not be retraining programs to assist Canadians to retrain for those jobs, so that we're not bringing in temporary foreign workers? Is that something your department is looking at, putting retraining programs in places where requests for temporary foreign workers have obviously indicated a shortage of skills in that particular area?
Acting Director General, Employment Program Policy and Design Directorate, Department of Employment and Social Development
In terms of retraining Canadians and whether we have a plan there, I think the diagnostic of the changing labour market and the need for a changing skill set and Canadians' need for mobility, not just in terms of physical mobility but also in skills mobility and transferable skills, are sort of driving the skills agenda and the training agenda.
On the transfer side, for example, we do have forward transfers that provide, as I said, $3 billion to the provinces and territories, which are primarily responsible for the training system.
Over the summer, and also in the previous two years, I have to say, we have been doing extensive consultations with Canadians on what this transfer architecture should look like, to allow for up-skilling, retraining, helping those who are new to the labour market, or you name it. It's to really help all Canadians. We want to know if we have the right architecture in place.
Through these consultations it was shown that really the flexibility of the transfers that we currently have in place is something we need to look at. When it comes to retraining, if you fall within the specific parameters for a transfer, you're eligible for retraining. If you don't fall within those specific parameters, you're out of luck. There's a certain rigidity around the training system that we need to look at, and Canadians have told us we need to build in more flexibility for that.
On top of that is this whole idea of innovation, making sure that we're always staying on top of the best approach to training to help Canadians move on. In addition to that, I would say that when it comes to retraining and re-skilling, it's essential skills, foundational skills, that are really important. We've heard that a few times. Your success in retraining and being flexible depends on the foundational skills that you have. Those are is really your ticket to being mobile in the labour market.
Do we have a plan in place?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
I'm sorry to interrupt. We're well beyond time. If you want to, you could take about 10 seconds to wrap up.
Acting Director General, Employment Program Policy and Design Directorate, Department of Employment and Social Development
Yes. I've only touched on the first.
Acting Director General, Employment Program Policy and Design Directorate, Department of Employment and Social Development
You asked about students coming out of university. We have a program called the career focus program that specifically targets youth who have a post-secondary education and who are having a hard time getting into the labour market, even with a good academic degree. Sometimes the soft skills or the work experience is missing. That's really an internship program that matches the individuals with the right job to anchor them in the labour market.
Liberal
Acting Director General, Employment Program Policy and Design Directorate, Department of Employment and Social Development
Sorry about the TFW issue.