Human Resources Committee on Dec. 10th, 2020

[Graham Flack]

Yes.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Okay.

[Graham Flack]

I believe by a worker who's already there.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

It's a worker who's going to have an additional workload of caring for the people, and also teaching somebody in the middle of the crisis?

[Graham Flack]

The limitation—

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

If you don't mind, could you provide me with a list of all of the groups that were consulted? If just the universities were consulted and not the front-line workers, there might be a gap. I hope that's not the case. I'm just hoping that we have the quality of care with these students.

[Graham Flack]

I'm happy to get back to you with more details. Yes, quality was very much in mind, which is why there's both a practical component and a theoretical component.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Falk, and Mr. Flack.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good evening to all of my colleagues. First and foremost, Mr. Flack and Mr. Robidoux, on behalf of the constituents in my riding of Saint John—Rothesay and all Canadians, thank you so much for the work you and your department have done over the past seven to 10 months. The work you've done for Canadians has been incredible. You stepped up when you needed to. Certainly, I know Canadians know that.

For me, in my riding, one of the greatest privileges and top priorities I've always had over the past five years has been to work with and advocate for the rights of Canadians with disabilities. As my friend and colleague MP Young referenced earlier, it was a privilege to be able to work in this committee in the last Parliament on our government's groundbreaking Accessible Canada Act, Bill C-81, along with some of my colleagues who are still here today, including MP Young and MP Falk.

On this Human Rights Day, I would like to focus my questions on what our government is doing through the investments shown in the estimates to help ensure that the rights of Canadians with disabilities are upheld, particularly throughout the pandemic.

The supplementary estimates (B) 2020-21 allocate $848.6 million towards a one-time payment to persons with disabilities, pursuant to an act respecting further COVID-19 measures.

During its study on Canada's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the committee heard, and I know all MPs did, about the difficulties faced by persons with disabilities during this public health crisis.

How many people is this measure expected to assist, Mr. Flack?

[Graham Flack]

First, thank you for your appreciation of the wonderful employees of our department, who I think have done a terrific job—and, if I could, I will express my disappointment at the fact that this will be the first year in my life I will not be home in the Maritimes for Christmas, so please take care of it for me.

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

Oh, no.

[Graham Flack]

The estimates are that 1.7 million Canadians will benefit from the disability payment, and 1.6 million were paid within the first short weeks after we put this brand new benefit on a brand new platform in less than 18 weeks. But there are additional windows where people can apply. We have given people until the end of December to qualify for the DTC, which is one of the routes they can use to qualify for the benefit.

People were automatically enrolled in the payment; they did not have to apply, but we've given people until the end of the year to apply to the DTC. For those who come in afterwards, we will make additional payments. I think those will be in February and March, if I'm not mistaken.

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

Thanks for that, and just for clarity, you said 1.7 million people.

[Graham Flack]

Our estimates are 1.7 million, and 1.6 million have already been paid as I understand it.

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

Thank you.

What was the rationale for making the one-time contribution rather than an ongoing payment for people with disabilities?

[Graham Flack]

That's a policy question I tread lightly on.

The decision at the time in the crisis was to try to compensate for additional expenses that individuals were incurring, or income loss that individuals had as a result of the crisis. As a result, all of the measures that we've been working through—the student support, the senior support, the recovery benefits and the disability benefits—have been time-limited benefits associated with the crisis, on the theory that when we move out of the crisis, those incremental expenses or income losses will no longer be a factor. That was the principle behind it, such that we were focused on dealing with the effects of the crisis, as opposed to using these measures to permanently restructure the system.

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

Thanks for that.

We have all lived this, but the one-time payment was announced during the summer, and eligible Canadians only began receiving the payment in October. I can certainly speak firsthand that it was a source of frustration. We were getting calls daily asking, “Where is the payment, how come we're last, how come it's delayed?”

Can you give an explanation to the committee about the delays? What happened there?

[Graham Flack]

We had no system in existence to provide such a payment. In fact, we had no system that linked together these various databases, including the veterans database, the CRA's DTC database and the payments through the CPP or Quebec plan, from which we had to get data.

We are very sorry it took as long as it took, but what I can tell you is that in normal times, for us to construct a system from scratch, as we had to do, that could could bring these together on an automated basis, it would normally take an estimated two years to do in peacetime, and yet the team found ways to do it in, I think, 17 weeks at the end of the day. I know 17 weeks was too long for people, but I think there will be awards for the record time we went from literally a computer system having to be built from scratch in an automated way to pull, test and do this. It's quite miraculous, but I appreciate that the minister has made it clear that she does not want to be in a position in the future where we have to build new systems to do this and that we should make the investments necessary to have these in place.

But, Cliff and others did miraculous work on this to get it done as quickly as was humanly possible.

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

Thanks for that.

Chair, how much time do I have?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

None, thank you. I'm sorry, Mr. Long.

Ms. Chabot, you have six minutes.

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

I have a few questions about employment insurance.

I asked the minister a question earlier. As you know, a number of emergency measures have been implemented, such as more flexible employment insurance measures and new benefits. Unfortunately, this has led to administrative delays for claimants who had to transition from one program to another.

These measures will end in June. Is work already under way to see how a comprehensive reform of the system will be carried out?

At the end of these 12 months, if nothing is done, we'll go back to the old program. This would be unfortunate, when we know the eligibility coverage rate, and so on.

Is any work being done on this review?

[Graham Flack]

As you said, Parliament made changes to the Employment Insurance Act that will apply until September 2021. If the act isn't amended, these exceptional measures will end on that date. As the minister said a few minutes ago, we're working on a more permanent reform of the employment insurance system. This was noted in the Speech from the Throne.

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

Has a time frame been announced? Will you use the temporary measures to build the new program?