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
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
—and that was about what you did under trades. You did a good job under trades.
Conservative
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley—Aldergrove, BC
On a point of order, Chair, there has to be relevance and there has to be fairness. In one call they're saying we should be dealing with youth employment. I tried to bring it all back to youth employment—
Conservative
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley—Aldergrove, BC
—and now we're talking about the rink and pointing fingers.
The government needs to take responsibility. It's been the government for over two years now, and it needs to take responsibility for the bad decisions and take credit for the good ones. Unfortunately, there have been more bad than good.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Thank you.
Fair enough; I will point that he was responding to a comment made by a member on your side, but I will give it back to Mr. Cuzner. He has a minute and 20 seconds.
Please get back to the study.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Thanks very much.
Of all the many bad things that were done under the last government, there was one good thing. Jason Kenney did a good job with the job bank. It wasn't perfect, but there was some good stuff in it. Organized labour embraced that. The tradespeople embraced it. I'd like you to talk a little bit about your investment with trades, the commitment you made and the commitment you followed through on to work with trades, at least to provide other opportunities for training in this country.
It was one of the rare things they got right, so let's give them some credit here today.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Right. I think this is an opportunity to talk about the union-based training program.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
The call for proposals has just concluded. We're very excited about this program. This is extending our partnership with the skilled trades and also with the organized labour movement.
Look, the previous government made an extraordinary effort to decimate, I would say, the organized labour movement. We know that in fact organized labour and unions are a critical component to a strong and healthy middle class. That's why we introduced Bill C-4 and we finally passed it. I can tell you that unions are thrilled. They are so happy to see a strong government, a Liberal government, as a partner in ensuring a strong labour movement.
That's why we moved forward with union-based training. It's another way we can demonstrate to unions that we believe that the work they do is critical to Canadians, not just in the things they build and the work they do on behalf of all Canadians but also in ensuring that next generation of talent. We look forward to making announcements in the months to come about how we'll be supporting unions with both equipment and recruitment to ensure that every Canadian, regardless of their gender, their cultural background, their physical ability, or their place of birth, will have an opportunity to participate in the skilled trades.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Thank you, Minister.
I see that we have actually surpassed the time you committed to being here today. I do apologize. Thank you for appearing here today.
We're at the end of questions. We have some committee business to do, which we will get to in just a moment.
Madame Sansoucy, you have a point of order.
NDP
Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
No, Mr. Chair. In fact, I have other questions I would have liked the minister to answer for the benefit of the study we are undertaking, and I would like to know whether it is possible to send questions through the clerk to the minister's office and to receive written replies. I would like to obtain some answers to the questions I have not been able to ask.
Thank you.
Liberal
Liberal
Dan Ruimy Liberal Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
Just to clarify, I know we ran out of time for our NDP colleague, but that's only for her to be able to submit that. We're not opening it up to a whole bunch of folks...?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
I think we can open it up. I'm sure we have a number of questions on our side as well that we'd like to get responses to.
Conservative
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Mr. Chair, my officials will be here in the next couple of days as well.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
You can ask any questions to the officials. There are multiple opportunities.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
That's a good point. Thank you very much, Minister.
I do have one piece of business that I want to get to before we wrap up. On Thursday I'll be presenting the travel budget to the SBLI subcommittee. As you know, I always want to be efficient with our time and with the energy of not just the members around this table but also the staff teams who do a lot of the work.
I don't want to move forward if we do not have unanimous support for the travel. I'd like to put that question to this group today. Do we have unanimous support for me to go to SBLI to advocate for this travel budget?
Go ahead, Mr. Warawa.
Conservative
