Human Resources Committee on April 24th, 2020

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Minister, by saying this, are you not telling people that they should just simply apply and roll the dice when it comes to whether or not they'll get to keep it? Because right now you're telling students that they only qualify for $1,250, or if they have dependants or a disability it's $1,750.

Are you not, by saying this right now in that kind of way, just encouraging people to roll the dice?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Just a short answer, Minister. We're out of time.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I am expecting Canadians to be honest. I am expecting Canadian students in particular to understand that as part of a broader package of measures we've put in place for them, which includes an income support piece, but also access to increased grant support, access to a service bursary for volunteer or community service.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

You have a responsibility to [Inaudible—Editor] fairly with the Canadian public.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Albas.

Mr. Turnbull, you have five minutes.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to Minister Qualtrough for being on the call today. I really appreciate the work that you and your department are doing. I know there is a real commitment to ensuring that all vulnerable groups are assisted at this time.

I know that when the CERB was rolled out, we prioritized speed and my constituents in particular expressed a lot of gratitude for how quickly they could apply and were able to get cheques. I've never seen government move so fast, so I am significantly impressed by that.

I am a relatively new MP in the Liberal caucus. I know that our members advocated for small changes to essentially accommodate other people within these measures and that those responses have been made, so thank you for all that work you and your team have done.

I have a couple of questions. I want to go back to the disabilities. I have numerous constituents who have disabilities and have expressed concerns that their provincial and territorial benefits in particular might be clawed back, even though they qualify for the CERB.

I wonder whether the disability advisory group will be working on that, and if you could give us an update on how the work with provinces and territories might be unfolding.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I am personally very seized with that issue and have raised it with my provincial, territorial and ministerial colleagues. I have written to them on this specific issue as recently as yesterday or the day before.

The disability advisory committee has raised concerns that there are situations in many provinces whereby entitlement to disability support benefits allows a certain income threshold, and that certain income threshold may be beyond the $5,000 that we require for CERB, so somebody may be entitled both to their provincial disability support and be eligible for CERB because they lost that employment income.

Some provinces like British Columbia have waived any kind of clawback so that people can get both of these kinds of benefits. Other provinces have decided to claw it back at a 50% rate, and other provinces are clawing it back entirely. This is a concern because the treatment is different across the country—but that's the reality of a federation. We're raising it at a bunch of different levels are working with PT governments to ensure that the most money possible gets directly into the hands of the people who need it.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

That's great. It's really good news for me to hear.

I also want to ask you about Canada summer jobs. We know the vital role that program has been playing in supporting young people in getting employment. I know there were lots of requests to update that program and for it to have some added flexibility, specifically around connecting those young people to jobs with community groups and essential services.

Could you give us an update on the recent measures that have essentially made that program more flexible at this time?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

The world didn't look the way it looks today when the first intake happened for Canada summer jobs back in January. Employers expressed interest in having young people work for them, and now they may or may not be able to offer that experience. Some employers didn't ask for young people who could really benefit them now, whether it be pop-up groups that are providing essential services in communities or organizations that asked for one person but really need two.

We tried to amend the Canada summer jobs program to respond to the reality on the ground for communities. We changed some of the criteria. For example, before private and public sector jobs were supported at 50% of the salary; now they are supported at 100%, as they were for non-profits. We are allowing part-time work whereas before it was full-time. We have extended the period during which students can work. It was until the end of summer; now it's until the end of next February.

We've done a number of things to help communities and give employers flexibility, and also to give MPs a chance to help us understand what's going on in their communities.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Turnbull.

Thank you, Minister.

We'll go back to the Conservatives for five minutes; Mr. Albas.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Raquel Dancho would like to go if possible.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Ms. Dancho, please.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Thank you.

Hello, Minister.

Thank you for being here today on a call.

I was interested in your government's release on the $9 billion in student subsidies the Prime Minister announced a few days ago.

Regarding the supports for students, you said it was “a reflection of the central role they will play in ensuring that Canada emerges from these challenges stronger than ever.” I was very encouraged to hear your belief in the student population contributing to this response. I was an undergraduate not too long ago, and I can tell you I certainly would have appreciated the opportunity to contribute to this relief effort.

I also appreciated seeing in the media lately that you acknowledged that the agriculture and agri-food sectors are experiencing significant employment shortages, which, as I'm sure you know, threaten the food security of our country. I'm sure your constituents, my constituents, everyone's constituents have told us they're alarmed about the shortage of food on the shelves and the increases in prices, and we know how this ties into labour shortages on farms.

I'm also sure you've heard about the Conservative proposal to create a Canada summer jobs program specifically for agriculture to mobilize our healthiest, most able-bodied young people to work on farms and fill these critical shortages.

You have said that your plan will provide “Canadians and businesses in all sectors across the country with the help they need to get through the current challenge and position them for success as we emerge from the crisis.” With that being said—which seems like a reasonable response, and you strike me as a very reasonable person—it seems that you would be supportive of the initiative we announced. We would like to hear from the government about it. Can you comment on whether you will be supporting it?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Thank you for your question and thoughtfulness. I draw your attention first to a campaign that we launched a couple of days ago called the “step up to the plate—help feed Canadians campaign”; it's directing young people to employment opportunities in agriculture. We've also tried to get the message out to MPs that Canada summer jobs is of course open to farmers and other agriculture sector employers. We also have a program with Agriculture Canada that's being enhanced to directly place young people in agri-food and agriculture sector jobs.

As much as I absolutely share the intent of your program, I'm not sure we need a separate CSJ stream to meet that objective.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

I appreciate the former announcements you made. We're not hearing from farmers that this is going to be enough to meet the needs they require to secure our food supply chain.

I did want to mention my concern about the program that you did announce, providing students with $1,250. I know that's going to be critical for many students, but we know in reality that it may incentivize students not to seek opportunities, and I think you would agree that your government needs to be doing everything it possibly can to motivate our youngest, our best and our brightest to get out there and contribute, as you said. It would seem like a normal conclusion to think that if you can focus a lot of your attention and your cabinet decisions on getting these students to work in agriculture—more so than you're already doing, so we start hearing positive feedback from farmers—that would be incredibly helpful and make straightforward sense.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I hear you. Our youth definitely want to contribute and are interested in serving and in working. I take your advice, and I will take it back to the cabinet table.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

That's great.

Chair, how many minutes do I have?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

You have a minute and a half.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Okay. Thanks.

Minister, I wanted to flag with you that earlier I mentioned to your officials that I'd had a very unfortunate experience with your parliamentary secretary's call yesterday about the $9-billion in supports. I had been on the call for an hour, and he had been informed ahead of time that I was going to be asking questions, and yet my NDP and Green colleagues were able to ask two to three questions each—even a staffer was asked a couple of questions several times—and yet they did not call on the Conservatives. That was the second call like this hosted by your parliamentary secretary, where I have not been called on for questions. Dan Albas and I have written you several letters, and we haven't heard back from you.

I did appreciate the apology from your colleague Adam Vaughan, but I wanted you to be aware that it's quite alarming to me, as the official critic for youth for all Canadians, that I have been unable until now to ask you or your parliamentary secretary any questions. I wanted to make sure you're aware that there's been a disappointing response to us as Conservatives who want to have an opportunity to ask those questions.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Thank you for letting me know. I apologize if that was your experience, and I'll make sure it doesn't happen again.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Thank you very much, Minister. All the best.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Dancho.

Next, back to the Liberals. Mr. Vaughan, you have five minutes, please.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

If you could tell me when there's two minutes left, I'd like to share my time with a member of the Green Party to make sure their perspective is added to our conversation today.

To the minister, I would like a quick yes or no to a couple of questions. Your department and your ministry are working on maternity and paternity fixes to CERB and working on how to accommodate international students. Work is under way to address some of the deficiencies that seniors are facing, and other work to address the issue of child maintenance and spouses who are relying on that but have lost it, and some tweaks are still to come for workers in the seasonal industries.

The department has been working on all these ongoing projects for a number of days if not weeks now.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

Thank you. One more yes there.

Second, is work already under way on structuring a recovery from the pandemic?