Human Resources Committee on Dec. 8th, 2020

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, the honourable member raises a really important issue. There is no more difficult loss than that of losing a child, and of course, our government recognizes that compassion and understanding at the onset is key to ensuring that families get the support they need during this really difficult time.

The EI sickness benefit is available to help eligible parents take up to 15 weeks off work to support them through the grieving process. We've also modernized the Canada Labour Code to make sure that federally regulated private sector employers offer grieving employees the time off they need to deal with their loss.

We'll always be there for Canadian families.

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

Minister, with respect to the child care benefit top-up included in the fall economic statement, if the bill doesn't come to pass by winter recess in the House, what will happen to the top-up?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Everything we've proposed in the fall economic statement, including the top-up to the Canada child benefit, is subject to the support we can obtain as a government from parliamentarians.

Of course, my hope and desire is that parliamentarians of all stripes will support this measure and will support our proposal to provide more supports to families with children under the age of six. The short answer is that we hope to get support for these measures.

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

If support for the overall package isn't available, would you consider supporting a separate vote on the child care benefits, basically carving it from the rest of the bill in order to ensure that parents receive this benefit?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Then we would have to engage in a very lengthy process of what you are willing to support, or your party is willing to support, in the fall economic statement and what you're not willing to support. In this appearance, I don't think that is something I'm really able to engage in.

What I can tell you is that the families need that support now and I would hope that all parliamentarians, including your political party, support our measures to support families with children.

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

Speaking of the supports now, let's talk about child care, something you mentioned before with the child care secretariat.

Can you tell us how the new secretariat will be structured, how many public servants will be allocated to this secretariat and what department they would report to?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

They would be housed in ESDC, but I'll turn to the ESDC officials to answer the question, Mr. Chair.

[Catherine Adam, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Service Policy Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

To answer the honourable member's question, it's still very early days in the announcement. As the minister has said, it's envisioned that the secretariat would be housed at ESDC. We're still working through its structure. The intent is to make sure that we have people in place who are able to work with provinces and territories to be able to learn, particularly from the model in Quebec; to be able to disseminate research and information on child care to child care providers as well as to ministries in provinces and territories; and to begin to do the legwork with our stakeholders and with provinces and territories around the Canada-wide system.

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

That's excellent. Thank you.

Minister, you mentioned high-quality child care a few times in your report. What determines quality?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Quality is determined by, obviously, the environment in which the children receive early learning and child care. I really want to emphasize the early learning part. It's not just child care. It's also early learning. It is also determined by the highly trained early childhood educators who are available to deliver the high-quality programming for these children.

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

If you're talking quality—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Mr. Schmale, you're out of time. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister.

Next we have Mr. Long, please, for five minutes.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Thank you, Chair.

Good evening, Minister. I want to thank you for taking time tonight, and I want to also thank you for the great work that you and your department are doing for all Canadians.

Minister, one of the biggest challenges and frustrations I've faced as a member of Parliament in my riding of Saint John—Rothesay is the fact that 1,500 people are on a wait-list for affordable housing. That number continues to grow year after year. To me, that's not acceptable because housing is a human right. That's why I've been advocating for unprecedented federal investments in affordable housing since I was first elected on HUMA in 2015. This advocacy and the work I've been able to do with you and my other colleagues here tonight has paid off in spades with the introduction of our national housing strategy.

I've consistently heard positive feedback about the investments we've been making in affordable housing, in collaboration with the provinces and territories, from affordable housing proponents in my riding. Both they and I are eagerly awaiting an agreement from the Government of New Brunswick to implement our groundbreaking Canada housing benefit in our province.

Minister, there's still a lot of work for us to do. We need more direct federal investment in affordable housing and that's where the co-investment fund and now the rapid housing initiative come in. Since the announcement of the rapid housing initiative I've been working closely with Develop Saint John and proponents to help get the applications in. We're extremely excited about it. I've heard much positive feedback from them so far on the program.

Minister, I know we've had some issues with the barriers to applying for the co-investment fund in the past, so I'm wondering what you've seen in terms of demand for the rapid housing initiative across the country.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I want to highlight the important point that the honourable member raises with respect to the Canada housing benefit. This is a game-changer because it is a portable support for rental payments for people with severe housing needs. It is not tied to a building or an apartment. It will do a lot to deal with all the folks who are on housing wait-lists.

In terms of the rapid housing initiative, I'm equally very excited for the second envelope, which will help non-profit organizations, provinces, municipalities, indigenous governing bodies and groups to apply. We aim to disburse that money through CMHC very rapidly, so it's not just that the housing will be built or provided rapidly, but we also expect those dollars to flow as quickly as possible and be committed before the end of this fiscal year, March 31, 2021.

It is proceeding well. We hope to get as many projects as possible from all corners of the country, including in the north. I believe the rapid housing initiative is a great example of the federal response to the feedback that we've gotten from many folks on the ground, who were saying that we needed to deliver housing solutions that provided supports to those who have been displaced by COVID and to those whom we have helped through Reaching Home dollars, to provide temporary shelter and then move them to permanent housing solutions through the rapid housing initiative, in addition to the other streams in the national housing strategy.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Minister, I'm going to jump in.

With respect to the two initiatives, the direct federal initiatives, the co-investment and now the rapid housing, can you elaborate a little more on how you see both these programs fitting within the overall national housing strategy?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

As I said, rapid housing will target folks who are experiencing homelessness or who have obtained temporary shelter as a result of COVID-19 but who don't have a permanent home. That's the priority population, obviously. We are inviting, as I said, non-profits and others to apply for the second envelope before December 31, 2020.

The co-investment fund is a fantastic program. Again, we partner with provinces, municipal governments and non-profit organizations to build deeply affordable housing.

It would be remiss of me not to also mention the rental construction financing initiative. That program, as noted in the full economic statement, is going to get, through additional supports, another $12 billion in financing. This is a program that allows for the construction of further rental units across the country in places where there's a lot of pressure on the rental market. Putting more rental units on the market reduces the pressure on the rental rate as well as building up mixed housing and contributing to accessibility and energy efficiency.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Long.

I now give the floor to Ms. Chabot for two and a half minutes.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Minister, earlier I asked a very specific question about employment insurance claims. You know that new measures have been made more flexible. However, some files are currently blocked by Service Canada because somewhere along the way, the claimant has received maternity or Quebec parental insurance plan (QPIP) benefits.

I will ask the officials about this later. You have yet to answer the question, but at least you did say, or it's what I heard, at any rate, that all Service Canada locations will be reopened. This is not what we have been seeing.

With all due respect—and I had asked the question on November 4—not all Service Canada locations have reopened, although a great many of them have. However, I want to let you know that the scheduled outreach sites are still closed.

I could tell you about the struggle, if I may use that word, or about people coming together in one of our constituencies, Rimouski—Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, in the beautiful Bas-Saint-Laurent region. Some people are trying to get a scheduled outreach site reopened there. They need it, and these sites are often in rural areas, where Internet service is not available everywhere. In addition, they have to travel many kilometres to get to a Service Canada location.

I understand that these locations have not reopened across Canada. Is reopening them a priority for you?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, our government is committed to ensuring that Canadians have access to the Service Canada services they need, and we have already reopened over 300 Service Canada centres across the country, including all locations in Quebec.

We are currently gradually and safely reopening Service Canada centres across the country.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Mr. Chair, on a point of order, I think the minister might have his interpretation overlapping. I'm getting both voices very loudly.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Minister, could you check to see whether you have your interpretation on English, French or floor?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

We are currently gradually and safely reopening Service Canada centres across the country. We base our decisions to reopen on public health recommendations, and we also want to ensure that as many Canadians as possible have access to a Service Canada centre.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Ms. Chabot.

Ms. Gazan, you have two and a half minutes, please

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, you indicated to me that you agree that the right to housing is a human right. I'm sure you saw today the bulldozing of an encampment of the unsheltered community in Montreal, where people lost everything. You indicate that you agree this is a human right.

Why isn't that reflected in your government's laws, policies and operational practices, and for that matter, in the kind of funding you provide to ensure that human right?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, I really want to address this point that the honourable member keeps repeating about funding. It's really interesting. When the New Democratic Party put its ambitious housing plan to Canadians, they didn't have any ambition, with respect, nothing close to the national housing strategy. They put forward a plan to invest $65 million in housing, which is so seriously out of line with the realities on the ground.

I'm not saying that the problems have been solved, but I want the honourable member to acknowledge not only the federal leadership but also the significant resources that our government has brought to the table. The fact of the matter is that municipal leaders and many others have recognized that the federal government is not only back in the housing game, but is making a serious difference on the ground.

I was in Ottawa today making an announcement regarding the rapid housing initiative in Ottawa. There will be a number of units and three different projects, so the work continues, but to suggest that somehow we lack ambition is, I think, unfair. It is completely hypocritical for the NDP to suggest that.