Evidence of meeting #74 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 employers.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Conservative
Conservative
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley—Aldergrove, BC
The standing orders, Chair, give each of us six minutes in the first round—
Conservative
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley—Aldergrove, BC
—and in the second round, it's six minutes for the first, second, and third questioners. Then it goes to five minutes. The clock I use here is a stopwatch; it is on an iPhone, and it's quite accurate, Chair. I had six minutes and—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Fair enough. As per the clock I use, which is right here and managed by the clerk, there was no time left, so I am moving on.
I'm recognizing Mr. Morrissey for six minutes. We have very limited time—
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
I'd like to answer the question, Mr. Chair, if I may.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
If you wish... actually, sorry; I have ruled that the minister is out of time.
If you wish to answer it after Mr. Morrissey has some time, that would be the protocol.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Thank you, Chair.
It is regrettable that when we have the minister here and we want to speak about a very pressing issue in this country, which is youth unemployment and access for disadvantaged youth, we spend this time on a debate.
Minister, I want to go back to my earlier question on disadvantaged youth. You were alluding to that. Could you expand on the four key areas that you're going to focus on going forward, which I agree must be focused on, especially capturing those youth who, for lack of a better term, slip through the cracks, and on how our government is going to focus on that?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Thank you very much.
I will respond to the former member's comment.
First of all, I understand that you just concluded a seniors study. Hopefully some of the answers to your questions are in the seniors study.
Second, I think it was a little bit ironic to hear the member talk about the efforts that his previous Conservative government made to increase women in the trades when he also concurrently talked about my role as Minister of Employment being a raise, essentially a promotion, from Minister of Status of Women Canada. In fact, it's incredibly sexist that the member would mention this as a promotion, because in fact gender equality requires a full-time gig. If you are going to make any efforts in terms of moving forward on gender equality, you have to understand that. The Minister of Status of Women isn't a junior role. It isn't a role that you play to pretend that you're focused on gender equality, which is what I suspect happened for the last 10 years, which is why we don't see women in skilled trades and we don't see women in non-traditional sectors, because we did not see a government that focused on the true equality of women. I can tell you that for all of the member's comments about their efforts in the trades, we have 110,000 unfilled skilled trades positions in this country. It's a crying shame. We can't build the things we want to build or fix the things we want to fix or build the new technology that we want build with Canadian workers because we can't find those people.
I'm sorry that I took up some time from your answer to respond to the previous member, but in fact I think it's very important that this be on the record. Our government is the first government truly focused on gender equality, and the Minister of Status of Women, as a full minister, has an incredibly important role—
Conservative
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
—to ensure that women have a rightful place in Canadian society.
Now moving on, to respond to the member, you're absolutely right—
Conservative
Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Mr. Chair, I'd like to raise a point of order, please.
Liberal
Conservative
Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Mr. Chair, our meeting is about experiential learning for youth. I would invite the minister to answer the questions that are put to her and to respect the topic we are studying.
Also, I would like to point out that there has not been any debate on the motion, Mr. Chair. We could have settled that and had an additional meeting to discuss it. If the members of the committee are really here to help young people, that is what we should do. We could have added a meeting to focus on the fastest-growing segment of the population.
So, let's stay on topic.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
I believe I was hearing the minister do just that, so I will go back to the minister.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
I'm happy to get back to the study at hand, which is experiential learning.
Absolutely, you're right. We know that first of all we have to ensure that we help young people transition from school or training to work, and apprenticeship is one of the ways. We know that we have to make sure young people are developing skills that are relevant to the workplaces of today, that we make sure employers have the talent they need and can move forward in finding that talent, and, of course, that we have better participation of employers.
Part of the challenge is that government simply can't do everything. Employers have to invest in their own labour needs. I've been speaking with sectors across the country. Largely I'm hearing agreement. I'm hearing that people understand that they need to develop the workforce of today and tomorrow with government, and we are more than happy to be a strong partner in that work. We're looking forward to the creative ideas of the labour movement and of employers to make sure that every young Canadian in this country has a fair shot at success.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
On experiential learning, as with the experience here today, I'm very much learning.
If we could get something straight, guys, let's not throw history out of this. To bring the questions about the rink, the real rink, to the minister today when she's here in front of us—
Conservative
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Exactly. The real rink was conceived under your current leader when he was Speaker of the House and wanted to bring the NHL game down and bring the rink to the.... We have to know that.
The real rink wasn't a fake lake that was $2 million. I don't know where the fake lake is now.
We're experiencing this, but you did make a good point—