Human Resources Committee on Dec. 8th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Colleagues, I don't think we're going to need to suspend because all of the witnesses we need for the next hour are here and ready to go. We have excused the minister, so I think we can start right in with questions.

Is there any problem with that approach, Mr. Clerk?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Andrew Wilson]

That is no problem whatsoever, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

We're going to begin with the Conservatives, for six minutes.

Mr. Schmale, please go ahead.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Thank you again, Chair, and thank you to our witnesses.

I want to continue on with the child care aspect.

Can the officials explain more about the leadership structure under this new secretariat? Specifically, what will it look like? Who will be on the panel, if there is one? How will you examine the various options that are in the marketplace, including the host of parental choice that could be available, while ensuring that those voices that are asking for non-government methods are heard?

[Catherine Adam]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

It's a big question the honourable member has asked around the structure of the secretariat. I just wish that we could give you some broad strokes really of the secretariat. It is very early days.

The issues that you've outlined are important. These are issues such as making sure that a secretariat is created that is able to engage with stakeholders, to hear from parents, to hear from the provinces and territories and to work directly with them to make sure that we are taking on board all of the views that there are. However, it is very early days so I am sorry that I wouldn't be able to provide you with an organizational structure in terms of size, scope, who is leading, how it's led, what the level would be. Quite frankly, I am looking forward to being able to work with people to have that opportunity, but unfortunately at this stage it is still too early.

Your point about listening to voices and engaging is an important one. It was what was done in the development of the multilateral framework in 2017. We continue to do this and engage regularly with provinces and territories. There's an expert panel that advises us and the minister in particular on data reporting. This would be the work that we would want to continue to do.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

How do you think the secretariat would differ from what the department does already?

[Catherine Adam]

I think there's a lot more that needs to be done and can be done. We certainly have seen that over the last few years, most recently in the impacts of the pandemic on women's labour market participation, but even just what we're seeing in terms of some of the fractures and some of the gaps that provinces experienced when child care centres were looking at having to close because they weren't sure about how to handle personal protective equipment and how to make sure that centres were safe during the pandemic for children.

We've realized that there are some gaps in the system. We've realized that there are some needs that we need to look at to see how we can best be responsive to them, not just from the federal government but to help support provinces and territories in uncovering best practices and sharing them.

It is really a bigger project and a bigger scope than what we have seen. It is much more than what we currently have in place to be able to engage with all Canadians, with all stakeholder groups, and to be able to work effectively with provinces and territories on this new vision.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

I know it's early days based on the answer to my first question, which was more to get a sense of where you were and where the department was in the planning. Do you see that the provinces will continue potentially to have the lead in the child care debate?

[Catherine Adam]

I'm not a constitutional expert but I do know that in terms of what we have with the multilateral framework and the bilateral agreements currently in place with provinces and territories, we work with them hand in hand as they establish what their priorities are and what they see needed in their communities. We work to make sure that we are supporting, through federal dollars, shared goals and objectives.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Based on what the minister said and based on what you're telling me, how do you foresee a system being set up that will allow maximum flexibility and choice if the federal government is leading the charge on this?

[Catherine Adam]

I think we currently have that with all due respect, Mr. Chair, and to the honourable member.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

We do now, yes.

[Catherine Adam]

We have a very strong multilateral framework that all the provinces except Quebec signed on to. Quebec agreed to the principles within it and has an asymmetrical agreement. This has been very much already, since 2017, work that's been done jointly with provinces and territories. I don't see that changing at all. It's really just continuing that work going forward with the vision the minister articulated here tonight.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Interesting.

Do you think the vision includes the fact that children have to go to day care to experience and receive early child learning?

[Catherine Adam]

I think the minister answered the question when he said that a choice is there. No one is compelling, and certainly that would not be what we have done with the federal investments since 2017. The focus has been on ensuring there is inclusive child care. I will use Saskatchewan as an example. It very early on wanted to move to make sure that children with hearing disabilities had accessible and inclusive child care and to make sure that early childhood educators were able to respond to the needs of children with different abilities.

There is still the element of choice. All parties involved in this, all the provinces, territories and stakeholders, are looking for ways to make the child care system that is there affordable, accessible for families and of high quality, and that includes issues of inclusivity so that children who are in care have a safe, secure space that supports their learning and achievement. That's not to say that there aren't other models. The minister spoke about OECD nations. However, what we have in the multilateral framework and the bilateral agreements is focused on the regulated child care sector.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Now obviously—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Schmale.

Mr. Dong, please, you have six minutes.

[Han Dong, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

Thank you, Chair, and thanks to all presenters for being here tonight.

First of all, I want to ask about Service Canada. We all know that COVID-19 has created some real difficulties in our public service and at Service Canada and their operations this year. We know that millions of Canadians rely on the important work and services they provide.

What are some of the ways Service Canada has adjusted its operations this year to meet the unique circumstances and challenges posed by COVID-19?

[Lori MacDonald, Senior Associate Deputy Minister, Employment and Social Development and Chief Operating Officer for Service Canada, Department of Employment and Social Development]

Thank you very much for the question. I'd like to spend a few moments just talking about what we've done over the past 10 months in terms of serving Canadians.

Earlier, we heard a question with respect to the opening up of Service Canada centres. Just for context, we have 317 Service Canada centres across the country. To date, we have 302 that have reopened again. The last 15 are very small offices that have unique challenges with respect to safety and security, but we do have plans in place to open them up early in the new year.

In addition, though—and this references the earlier question with respect to outreach services—we've not been able to return to our typical outreach services where we would send staff in person to do “in-reach” to certain areas, but what we have done is that we've created two new models to reach all Canadians across the country.

The first model is what we call e-service, whereby people who don't have an office near them are able to fill out a form and connect with us online. We return a call to them within 48 hours. We've seen significant uptake in that, and we've actually processed multi-thousands of applications as a result of this new e-service. That has actually taken the place of the formal visits we would have done in outreach previously.

The second process we've put in place is a new outreach call centre that allows people to call into us on a very special number, and this is supporting particularly our rural and northern areas, where people don't have access to Service Canada centres. We've seen significant uptake in that area as well. In fact, we've increased our capacity to deliver services in those areas by 50% pre-COVID. An example would be that last year, when we did outreach services in person, we processed about 11,000 service requests. This year so far, during COVID, we've processed over 20,000 services.

We have put those two new services in place.

[Han Dong, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

Thank you.

What about our resumption of in-person service?

[Lori MacDonald]

We have, as I indicated, opened up 302 of the 317. They are all open and providing services each day. The only times that we're closing now is if we actually have an incident of a COVID case in our offices and we're required to clean. We use a cleaning service, and we open back up again. Those are available across the country. In fact, we have 93% of the Canadian population able to access a Service Canada centre within 50 kilometres of their residence.

[Han Dong, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

What about regions or cities such as Toronto, where they're facing a lockdown, and areas like that?

[Lori MacDonald]

What we're doing at this time is continuing to be open, but we're following public health guidelines. We have not yet had to close as a result of that; however, we do have a process in place if that were to happen. What we will do is immediately go to appointments being set up so that we don't create lineups outside our Service Canada centres.

We don't want to be contributing to any of the close contacts, but at the same time, we want to continue to offer services, so we actually have a process in place—contingency planning—in order to continue to provide services.

[Han Dong, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

That's great. Thank you.

I want to ask about CMHC. We learned from the fall economic statement that the government is providing new resources to enable the rental construction financing initiative to provide an additional $12 billion in new lending over seven years. How do you plan to roll out these additional funds in the coming years?

[Romy Bowers]

Thank you very much for that question. In response, I will say that the RCFI program that we launched almost four years ago has been a very great success.

We have a great team that works with housing providers across Canada to make sure that the applications are processed in a very timely and efficient way. From our perspective, we have been granted $2 billion in additional funding, and we have the capacity to deliver on that, based on the firm foundation that we have established in terms of delivery capabilities.