Evidence of meeting #32 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 communities.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
November 29th, 2016 / 9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Yves Robillard Liberal Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
Welcome to all our witnesses. Thank you for being here.
I have a fairly long question for Ms. Roy.
A representative from Actua who appeared before our committee told us that it was important to involve disadvantaged youth and youth living on reserves in new technologies in order to offer them a way out of poverty. Our government has already set up the Canada child benefit, which aims to lift 300,000 children out of poverty
To further reduce poverty among our young people, it has been suggested that we ensure that they acquire skills appropriate for the digital world so that they aren't left behind. The same is true for adults who are continuing their educations. Since I know you work in the field, I would like to hear your comments on that.
I would also like to know what you think about providing structured early childhood support. That's what we proposed as part of our election platform. This includes support for early childhood educators and a tax credit for school supplies. We know from experience that some teachers, including the ones I had, use their own money to buy school supplies.
Director General, Regroupement québécois des organismes pour le développement de l'employabilité
Thank you for your question.
I think that developing digital skills is very important. With regard to the nine core competencies in Canada, we aren't talking about computer skills anymore, but digital literacy. It's important to lift young people out of poverty. This also applies to all under-represented groups in the labour market, whether they are socially excluded youth, indigenous people or experienced workers who have difficulty in using technology.
It's important to invest in digital skills development. It can help to bridge the digital divide among Canadians, but we must ensure that Canada has a digital strategy.
In 2015, I attended an international symposium on public policy and career development in the United States. One of the findings of the Canadian delegation was that there was still inequality due to the high cost of Internet services. We must ensure that people living in poverty have easy access to Internet services so that they can use new technologies.
I think it's very important to invest in developing and using these technologies. That said, developing the skills of young people or even adults does not only involve the use technology. It should also be used to integrate into society and the labour market. Improper use of skills and technological tools can have a detrimental effect on young people.
Yes, it can lift people out of poverty, but for it to work well and be well integrated, Canada needs a national digital strategy, whether it involves developing academic skills or workforce skills.
Going back to what you said about early childhood, I think it's important to give a tax credit. It's good to begin developing these skills from early childhood because, these days, they are required in all areas of life. Education is also needed.
Liberal
Yves Robillard Liberal Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
Do you find that educators, especially early childhood educators, receive enough tax credits and other things like that to compensate for the lack of financial resources facing education?
Director General, Regroupement québécois des organismes pour le développement de l'employabilité
Employability organizations do not represent early childhood centres, but these people should, indeed, have more resources. I have often heard that they have to pay for some things out of their own pockets. It's important that they have the tools necessary, but there should also be some support, a government strategy behind this. That said, I think there should be more tax credits in this area.
Liberal
Yves Robillard Liberal Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
Thank you.
In terms of employability development, do you use different methods with the Inuit community than you do with employees in urban areas?
What lessons learned in urban settings, like Laval or Montreal, can you adapt when you are looking to develop employability in indigenous communities?
Director General, Regroupement québécois des organismes pour le développement de l'employabilité
Thank you for the question.
Yes, the methods we use are different. For the past three years that our organization has been working with indigenous communities, we have found that conventional, traditional labour force development tools, public employment services, have not worked, despite the impressive structure. In fact, there are a lot of very interesting public services in Canada, but they are not tailored to the specific characteristics. So we have had to adapt them to the specific cultural realities of indigenous communities. So, yes, we have to adapt them when we intervene in urban areas. Often, when people arrive in urban areas to gain a place in the labour market, they already face many challenges. There are many mutual prejudices to be blurred. There is also the language barrier, especially in Quebec, where French is required in addition to English.
In fact, we are reviewing all the tools that exist at the moment. We will give you a copy of our study on that. It is very important to adapt to cultural specificities. Let me mention that 15 years ago, we started developing tools for employment integration and retention for immigrants. Over the last two or three years, we have begun to address this issue with respect to indigenous people. We must completely change our approach.
Liberal
NDP
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB
Thank you very much.
Thank you to all our witnesses for the very compelling testimony here today.
Mr. Wood, I would also like to thank you for sharing such personal stories and how we need to learn from that as a parliamentary committee in terms of our recommendations.
I will direct my questions to Mr. Neepin, who is on the phone from Manitoba.
Mr. Neepin, I would like to thank you for your presentation on behalf of the Keewatin Tribal Council and the 13 first nations that the Keewatin Tribal Council represents. I wanted to pick up first on the points that you made with regard to post-secondary student support. I realize that you referred to it at the end. You talked about how there's a need for more post-secondary funding and how this connects to student outcomes in particular.
We know that the 2% cap that was put in place in the late nineties continues to exist, and this is something that has essentially created a massive backlog of upward of 10,000 first nation students across the country who would like to further their education at the post-secondary level, but simply cannot because of inadequate funding. I'm wondering if you could share with us what it looks like not to have adequate post-secondary funding. What are the kinds of stories you hear from students from the KTC region, or perhaps others as well, who don't have adequate post-secondary funding?
Executive Director, Keewatin Tribal Council
Back in our communities, at the end of the day, it's the first nations communities themselves that have to find money to fund the inefficiency levels. It seems to us anyway at the tribal council level that.... Even this tribal council had two-thirds of its funding cut two years ago. We've had to still provide essential services to our communities. The very same thing goes for the students who are out and away from the communities. The bands themselves have to find resources to provide essential services to our communities.
It's a good thing that young people want to go to school. It would be sad if we didn't have the demand. I think it's a good thing that a lot of young people want to continue school, to leave their communities, those who can, and pursue post-secondary education. I think that's a good thing. As I said, our inability to address those demands, or expectations, has been frustrating. The wait list...and we continue to defer many of those students until later. We have just not been able to meet their demands.
Of course, tuition costs continue to rise, and our funding levels continue to stay the way they have been for years now. It just affects our ability to provide the services that these students expect. They look at other students who are funded from elsewhere, and the two levels of support services are not comparable at all.
NDP
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB
Thank you for that.
I'm wondering, Mr. Neepin, if you could also talk about the particular experience of isolated communities when it comes to underfunding, given that most of Keewatin Tribal Council's first nations are isolated. What does the lack of funding for K to 12 as well as post-secondary education mean for those communities in particular?
Executive Director, Keewatin Tribal Council
I'm trying to think how I can really show the differences in the funding levels at the provincial institutions, what we know as Frontier Collegiate. They are the provincially operated schools here in Manitoba.
Back home, for instance, in our community of Fox Lake up in Gillam, Manitoba, our high school students have to leave that community and go to the neighbouring community in Gillam. It's where Frontier operates that school. Frontier bills us, for example, $1, but we have funding for only maybe 60¢ to the dollar. We're still expected to pay the dollar, the amount Frontier School is billing us for the students who are attending its schools.
What that means overall to the band and to the communities is that they continue to run deficits, and that's what I mean when I say that essential services that are needed by these students have to be absorbed by someone somewhere, and it's usually the bands. The tribal council can't absorb those costs because we don't have the funding.
If anyone's going to compare any kind of level of service in education, they can simply look at the provincially operated schools and compare the current funding levels that our communities have. You will actually see what the difference is and it's usually 60¢ to the dollar for the level of services that are provided. Fox Lake is not even considered remote and isolated when you compare it to the 10 other communities that Keewatin Tribal Council services.
Liberal
Liberal
Liberal
Filomena Tassi Liberal Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON
I too wish to begin by thanking each and every one of you for being here today and sharing your stories, your expertise, and the commitment that each of you has demonstrated. I have to say that I'm experiencing many emotions this morning as we hear from you, and I think that's a very good thing, because I think at the end of the day that enables us to come up with recommendations that are going to work and that are effective.
Unfortunately, I only have six minutes; I could spend hours. I would like to address my questions to Ms. Cattari.
The federal government has invested $112 million over two years to implement a poverty reduction strategy, and I know that Hamilton is on the leading edge in the area of minimizing homelessness. Can you share with this committee what you believe are the keys to your success, keeping in mind that in this portion of the study, we're focusing on training, education, and jobs?
Campaign Co-ordinator, Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction
Thank you for that. Honestly, one of our biggest programs is an adaptation of Housing First. We have found that once people are stabilized, there is a rapid reintroduction to employment. Once you lose a job and you become homeless, it's very hard to continue to search for work to get back up on your feet. In Hamilton, that has been really key to helping males.
Conversely, if I may say so, women's homelessness has not been looked at as extensively, and it has a similar impact on employment. People couch surf through the community, and it's harder to gauge the extent of women's homelessness because of that, but if we could have a targeted program taking what we've learned in Hamilton through Housing First and could adapt that to women, that would help as well.
The other complication with that is dealing with domestic violence. Currently we have about 300 applicants per month who aren't able to get into shelters that accommodate women. If we're going to expand or continue what we're doing, I think looking at women is a priority.
Liberal
Filomena Tassi Liberal Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON
Following up on that because it ties into the next area I want to ask a question about, when you look at women and poverty and their struggles, is there a specific group of women who share certain characteristics who are hardest hit? You mentioned child care and women with children. Is there a specific group, and if there is, what can the federal government do to help address the women who are struggling with those particular obstacles?
Campaign Co-ordinator, Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction
The Canada child benefit as implemented has helped enormously. We've seen our numbers rise, especially in single-parent households, so that's fabulous.
We're looking at teenage single parents but also women going through separation and divorce. The problem isn't so much that women aren't working. I know someone who asked for assistance because their daughter was making $35,000 a year but since she was going through a separation the mother-in-law decided not to give caregiving anymore. Because she couldn't find child care she ended up on social assistance. I found this unbelievable, that someone could lose a managerial position in a store because they couldn't find child care.
The other communities hardest impacted would be visible minorities and of course our aboriginal community. The numbers suffering from poverty are staggering in those communities. Getting placement for women is difficult, especially for newcomers.
Liberal
Filomena Tassi Liberal Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON
Can you comment on what suggestions you can make in helping seniors and persons with disabilities? We know they are hit hard by poverty.
Campaign Co-ordinator, Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction
Just briefly, revising CPP and GIS is important because when women as mothers take time off during their working years, their CPP is always lower. When teenagers are looking for work it's difficult when seniors are taking those part-time jobs that students usually rely on. The other part of that is that I don't think the base amount of CPP disability has changed since its inception. I think we often underestimate the value, both economically and socially, of allowing people with disabilities to work somewhat. When you're in crisis through illness or disability and struggling to maintain rent and food, it's difficult to find employment.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Again, thanks to our witnesses today. It's very compelling testimony, especially Mr. Wood's and his incredible story. You have my respect.
Mr. Lewis, I read about your story at Walgreens with great interest and then your NOGWOG initiative that you're starting up. Is your son, Austin, still employed? Where is he now?
