Evidence of meeting #76 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
Ramesh Sangha Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Are the career focus program and the summer work experience program working well?
Executive Director, East Prince Youth Development Centre Inc.
They are not working for the youth at risk.
Liberal
Ramesh Sangha Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
The summer work employment program is not working for youth?
Executive Director, East Prince Youth Development Centre Inc.
It's not working for the youth at risk. The programs are working for a portion of the youth we deal with, but not all.
Liberal
Ramesh Sangha Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Is the career focus program working for the youth at risk?
Liberal
Ramesh Sangha Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Okay.
You already talked about the fact that you are dealing with youth suffering from poverty, addiction, lack of housing, mental conditions, and problems with the justice system.
Liberal
Executive Director, East Prince Youth Development Centre Inc.
We get referrals from each of those departments to work with these clients, or it may be that a client has walked in the door. Many of our clients come through income support, and we take them from there to the other organizations they need supports from, whether those be mental health services or addiction services.
Many youth will not walk through every door, especially in a government type of building, but they feel confident in coming into our organization knowing that they're going to get the supports they need. Yes, we are an employment service centre, but our goal is to help everyone get to that stage. As I said, many times it's a long road between today and employment.
December 5th, 2017 / 5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Ramesh Sangha Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
The YES program is a new program coming in 2017-18, as planned by the Liberal government. Its funding is going to be helpful for vulnerable youth, for green jobs, and for jobs in opportunities for organizations that are celebrating Canadian heritage. This funding program, which Mr. Blaney was talking about earlier, was totally stagnant during the Conservative government. It was not working well.
Do you think this new program, which is funded by the Liberals, will help you in running this institution toward removing those who are indeed in need of assistance, those who need help from your organization...?
Executive Director, East Prince Youth Development Centre Inc.
To this point, I haven't seen it help any of the youth that are in our 79% of youth at risk, but it really does support the other 29% of youth who we deal with.
Liberal
Dan Ruimy Liberal Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
Just to set the record straight, we know that folks who take those types of programs have fallen through the cracks, absolutely, but we've just recently announced a $40-billion national housing strategy. We need people to actually be in a home. We need people to actually be comfortable and set in a home, so that's something we are moving forward with.
We've close to doubled the Canada Summer Jobs program, which speaks to some of that, but not enough. We've just announced 10,000 paid internships through Mitacs. Over the last two years, we've announced $8 billion in housing and education for indigenous folks. We've increased student grants. We've made it easier to take student loans.
The reason I'm here today is to find solutions to how we get those folks who are struggling through, not to point fingers, and that's why programs from Kwantlen college are critical.
Also, when we talk about the Skills Link training program, what I'm trying to find out is how we are tracking the results of the efforts that are being made through organizations like yours.
Are they moving from you to a job? If they're not, why not? Where are those challenges? Can you give me, from your experience, what's missing from that piece of the puzzle?
Executive Director, East Prince Youth Development Centre Inc.
Support with housing is a big thing for the homeless people. As you said, if you don't have a place to live, it makes it very difficult to have a job. We've had clients who carried a kit bag with a change of clothes in it because they slept on park benches.
I think that more needs to start in the school, early in the school. There is a program called Pathways to Education, which I feel is a very good start, and it seems to be doing well in all the locations where it is. Unfortunately, we don't have that on Prince Edward Island yet. I'm hoping that will happen eventually to get more supports in the school before they become youth at risk.
Liberal
Dan Ruimy Liberal Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
I really believe we need to tackle this problem before it gets to that point.
Liberal
NDP
Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
I will continue what I started a little earlier.
However, before doing so, I would like to say, Ms. Broome, that I don't have any questions for you because you work in a sector I know quite well. But I would like to say that I really appreciate the clarity of your answers.
We talked about underemployment, and I will continue with that. We said that young people are more often underemployed.
In your experience, are some young people from disadvantaged groups more likely to be underemployed? If so, which ones?
How could the federal government intervene to reduce these inequities?
Advisor, Entrepreneurship, voluntary work and voluntary action, Réseau des carrefours jeunesse-emploi du Québec
Indeed, young people are among the populations most affected by underemployment. Among young people, newcomers are the ones who are most affected. First Nations are too. In addition, young people who have not completed their education or who have not obtained a university degree are also among the most affected.
The answer to this continues to be support. As my colleague Ms. Violletti said, the overall approach is to support young people overall, in other words, in all the difficulties they face, and not just in terms of employment difficulties.
It's important to provide continuity of service to these young people, so that they don't fall through the cracks we were talking about earlier. We must allow a continuity of personalized services and support that take into account all areas young people's lives.
Advisor, Special Projects, Personal and Professional Autonomy, Réseau des carrefours jeunesse-emploi du Québec
I would simply like to round out my colleague's answer.
Since 2006, several actions have been carried out within the youth employment centres relating to student retention. The IDEO 16-17 measure is now part of the Creneau youth employment centre framework.
Student retention is one of the elements that promotes access to jobs, and enables young people to thrive and develop their full potential. As we know, young people who leave school early will have access to jobs that will enable them to meet their food needs rather than real careers.
Promoting student retention, support and accessibility to services is certainly essential to allow complementarity and continuity, to enable young people to integrate socio-professionally.
NDP
Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
In your presentation, you spoke briefly about how the OECD has documented the polarization of the labour market.
How is Canada, and more particularly Quebec, affected by income inequality, the gap in which is growing larger and larger?
