Human Resources Committee on Nov. 30th, 2017

[Rachel Wernick]

No, it's okay. I think it's probably a combination of things. I was going to say one of the biggest areas—

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

It's because we're studying and we have to make a report—

[Rachel Wernick]

No, it's totally fair. It's a rich subject area. It's going to be a great study.

One of the biggest areas for vulnerable youth is in what we call “essential skills”. Essential skills span literacy, numeracy, communication skills, learning and adaptability skills, document use, digital.... There's a whole area that we call essential skills. Vulnerable youth often need additional help there.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Now that you've identified that, what is your department's policy or planning process doing to address it?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Give a very quick answer, please.

[Rachel Wernick]

There is a $50-million program led by the office of literacy and essential skills. This is a good example of complementarity between the federal initiative and the provinces.

It operates like an innovation program, in that it takes promising practices and tests them to see what works best for which youth in which environment. Things that might work to teach essential skills for indigenous youth are different from what you would use with other groups of youth. It tests those and uses the results to influence programming at the provincial and territorial level. That's the way we work right now.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Can I get one clarification here?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Sure.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Could you provide some data to this committee on the issue you just referenced?

[Rachel Wernick]

You'd like data on essential skills? Sure. Yes.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much for appearing.

I will say, just to advise my colleagues and you as well, that I attended the Conference Board of Canada summit on this very issue yesterday. They are incredibly excited that you're reviewing and updating the youth employment strategy. It was the main topic of the symposium both yesterday and today. All stakeholders that I spoke with—companies, universities, colleges—are very pleased at the work that you're doing, so I imagine you will be getting some feedback from them from this summit. They were also very shocked and surprised that we were doing this study as well. It was a great day.

Thank you so much for coming. We are going to suspend for literally 30 seconds to allow you to vacate and allow the next panel to come in and take their seats.

We are suspended.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Welcome back, everybody.

I'm very pleased to get going on the next panel of witnesses. From the Public Service Commission, we have Patrick Borbey, president, and Roxanne Poitras, youth engagement officer. From the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, we have Paula Isaak, assistant deputy minister, education and social development programs and partnerships.

Each department will receive seven minutes for opening remarks, and we'll obviously follow that with a series of questions.

Please make sure that your earpieces are nowhere near the microphones. We had some issues with feedback in the past couple of weeks.

I will turn it over to Patrick. The next seven minutes are yours, sir.

[Patrick Borbey, President, Public Service Commission]

Thank you.

Do you mean seven minutes to me and seven minutes to Roxanne?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

No.

[Patrick Borbey]

We understood there was a little bit more time. Perhaps since everybody has seen my text—I think it has been delivered—I think it's more important to hear from Roxanne than from me.

Since you have my text, Mr. Chair, I will give my time to Madame Poitras.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

You can split the time, but Roxanne, you have the floor.

[Roxanne Poitras, Youth Engagement Ambassador, Public Service Commission]

Thank you for the opportunity to share a bit about my experience as the PSC's Youth Engagement Ambassador.

I am new to the role, having only been appointed to the position about three months ago. I am the PSC's third Youth Engagement Ambassador and the chair of our Young Professionals Network.

I came into the public service as an FSWEP student, and as is the case for many, I did not get a job that was related to my field of study. Once I graduated, I was appointed to a clerical position. I stayed in that position for five years, as there were few opportunities for development or advancement. It was only after joining a young professionals' network and getting involved in my organization that I acquired more experience and expanded my network. I was then able to move around and eventually get a promotion in another department.

Since that time, these networks have been a crucial part of my career development. Even though I am only now getting to work on projects that are related to my degree, I believe that the path I followed helped me define the kind of professional I am and want to be.

A major part of my job is to help young professionals within the PSC lead, share and learn. I represent the voice of young professionals at various committees and events.

I am also called on to review things like policies, presentations and communications to ensure they will resonate with younger audiences.

Another part of my role is to support students and to make them an important part of the network. I find that students engage well with the network members, in part because they themselves were students not too long ago, and they are able to relate to what the students are experiencing. I try to engage them as much as possible and utilize their interests. For example, this summer our students were called upon to develop a communications plan for active work stations. They successfully completed this job, and we're very proud to say that they contributed something meaningful to the PSC.

This job has opened many new doors for me—doing things I would never have had a chance to do in other jobs. For example, appearing before this committee, participating in last week's President's Leaders GC Twitter chat on renewal of the public service, and assisting in designing and implementing the PSC's student onboarding program.

It is also an honour to have the chance to help young Canadians at a time when the public service is placing such a strong emphasis on renewal and on attracting young Canadians into its workforce.

I would like to thank you once again for the experience of appearing before this committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

There are about three and a half minutes left if you wish, Patrick.

[Patrick Borbey]

That's a bonus. Thank you.

You will see from my remarks that the Public Service Commission is certainly a very active participant in the renewal of the public service through our programs, through the programs for hiring students to give them experience through what we call the FSWEP, the summer student work experience program, as well as the co-op programs, which are very important and very valuable.

Of course, we also do recruitment at the post-secondary level. We are conducting a recruitment campaign at the post-secondary level, and we hope that students from one end of the country to the other will think of us as a career option. We encourage them to apply for positions in various career categories.

There are personnel shortages in the public service, for instance in information technology. We also need good communications agents and scientists. We need personnel in all areas. We hope that young people will choose careers in the public service.

We have a lot of activities to move this forward, and we can do more. Our programs are sometimes a bit slow and cumbersome, but we are working a great deal on modernizing them.

We have a very ambitious program to modernize our suite of programs, to provide better services, to provide better real-time feedback to participants and potential candidates, and also to support managers who are looking to match the skills that are required with what's available in the Canadian labour force.

Hiring young Canadians has to be a priority. We need to do a better job. We need to rejuvenate the public service. If you look at the statistics, we are not keeping up with the labour force. We need to do better. That means a fair amount of external hiring over the next few years.

As soon as we open up to external hiring, as my notes say, we also open ourselves up to greater diversity. There are a lot of Canadians from all kinds of backgrounds across the country, coast to coast to coast, who want to be part of the public service of the future, and our job is to make that happen.

Thank you. Merci.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you for being here, sir.

Now we'll go over to Ms. Isaak for seven minutes.

[Paula Isaak, Assistant Deputy Minister, Education and Social Development Programs and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development]

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.

My name is Paula Isaak, and as was mentioned, I'm the assistant deputy minister responsible for education and social programs and partnerships in the Department of Indigenous Services.

I would like to thank the committee for the invitation to appear here today.

I would like to also acknowledge that we are gathered on traditional Algonquin territory.

I'm happy to be here to contribute to your study on experiential learning and pathways to employment for Canadian youth. Indigenous Services funds programs and services that contribute to these issues in a number of ways, and I'll provide a brief overview in the next couple of minutes.

First, to address the critical need to improve education outcomes, the Government of Canada is making substantial investments in elementary and secondary education on reserve, totalling $2.6 billion over five years, which started last fiscal year. This includes new targeted investments in language and culture, special education, and literacy and numeracy.

The department supports innovative and experiential learning activities through one of our programs, called new paths for education. Two key themes for this program in this current fiscal year are land-based education and physical activity and sport.

Land-based learning provides students with the opportunity to learn while connecting with the land. It provides culturally relevant experiences outdoors, with the land acting as the classroom and teacher, and it makes use of indigenous knowledge.

A holistic approach to physical activity and sport has the potential to improve the well-being, mental health, physical health, and academic success of indigenous students, as well as to enhance student engagement in school. Sports and physical activities can promote the use of indigenous languages, the involvement of parents and community members in learning, and the enhancement of curriculum.

Additionally, we have worked closely with first nation partners to implement an inclusive and comprehensive engagement process aimed at developing recommendations for strenghtening first nation education on reserve, based on the principle of first nations control of first nation education.

We are now working closely with first nation partners to jointly develop a policy framework that will shape the way forward for how the department supports different first nation approaches to ensuring first nations students on reserve receive a quality education that improves outcomes.

Second, we provide support for indigenous students to access and succeed at post-secondary education, since it is an important component of individual and community success. Post-secondary education not only helps to increase individuals' job opportunities and earning power but also helps communities build capacity and promotes learning for future generations.

To ensure that indigenous students have the same opportunities for success as other Canadian students, the Government of Canada is increasing funding to support indigenous students pursuing post-secondary education.

Budget 2017 provided an enhancement of $90 million over two years, beginning this fiscal year, for post-secondary student support, to provide financial assistance to first nation and eligible Inuit students enrolled in post-secondary programs and to help offset tuition, travel, and other expenses. Approximately 22,000 first nation and Inuit students are supported annually by this program, and the enhancement from budget 2017 will support an additional 4,600 students over that two-year period.

Budget 2017 also provides support for Indspire, which is an indigenous-led charity that assists indigenous students with the financial support they need to pursue education, become self-sufficient, contribute to the economy, and give back to their communities. The Government of Canada is providing $5 million per year for five years, starting this fiscal year. Altogether, this will provide over $40 million over five years in bursaries and scholarships for more than 12,000 indigenous students through Indspire.

The department is undertaking a comprehensive and collaborative review of post-secondary education for indigenous students, together with Employment and Social Development Canada and indigenous partners.

In the review, we are engaging first nation, Inuit and Métis leadership to examine current federal supports, to understand what works and what requires adjustment, and to develop ideas and solutions that will improve access and promote post-secondary education attainment for indigenous students.

Another way in which we are supporting youth to succeed in the job market is through the first nations and Inuit youth employment strategy, which you would have just heard about from your previous witnesses. It is part of the youth employment strategy led by ESDC.

It helps first nations and Inuit youth between the ages of 15 and 30 to develop essential employability skills, gain exposure to career options, understand the relationship between education and labour market participation, and access co-operative work and study opportunities.

To enrich opportunities for first nations and Inuit youth, budget 2017 is investing $100 million for this strategy over three years, which includes two programs: the first nations and Inuit summer work experience program to acquire skills, prepare for full-time employment, and earn income to support post-secondary education through summer work experience, and the first nations and Inuit Skills Link program to acquire essential job-related skills, learn about career options, and prepare for employment and career development.

The department has been taking action to improve the wellness of indigenous peoples by addressing the socioeconomic challenges that they face.

We are committed to working on a nation-to-nation basis with indigenous partners to improve education outcomes. The government has already taken some immediate actions with historic investments with respect to on-reserve education, post-secondary education, and skills acquisition. This work is an important start, but we know that much remains to be done.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much.

Up first we have Mr. Kent.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for coming.

There are so many questions. I have a couple of questions first to Mr. Borbey and Ms. Poitras.

Aside from the summer hiring programs, is the public service entry examination still in place? Could you update us on what the requirements are?

[Patrick Borbey]

There is a general test administered to all candidates through our post-secondary recruitment program. This is administered a few weeks after we close the call for applications. It allows us to do a first screening. We end up with a number of candidates who are available for departments to assess using their own methods. If they want to use an interview or set a further test, they can apply it, depending upon which career stream the candidate may have applied to. In some cases the pool may be more limited than in other cases. Depending on its preference, the department may use various testing methods, which we also provide. We have all kinds of tests that are adapted.