Human Resources Committee on Nov. 26th, 2020

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Details of the plan haven't been rolled out. What's the timeline? What should seniors be looking at in terms of their expectations?

[Benoît Robidoux]

I have the expert with me. I will turn to Alexis to give you his best guess on when.

[Alexis Conrad]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I can't trump the minister by giving a date when the government will make a major announcement, but I can tell you that Minister Schulte, with whom you spoke, with is very much supportive of Minister Qualtrough's efforts around a disabilities inclusion action plan. She has strong commitments in the Speech from the Throne and strong ambition. She has engaged the community. Minister Qualtrough has a disability advisory group, and she is very keen to move forward with as many of these initiatives as possible as soon as possible.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Is it fair to say “soon”?

[Alexis Conrad]

I would say “as soon as possible” would be her view.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Okay. Thank you.

We've seen that the belated delivery of the $600 one-time payment to the 1.7 million or so certified persons with disabilities originally left out more than six million people living with disabilities who weren't certified, but who are now told they can apply.

Given that a significant number are seniors, should they now be certifying themselves in expectation that the still-undefined disability benefit modelled on the GIS will be available to them?

[Benoît Robidoux]

Alexis, do you want to answer that?

[Alexis Conrad]

[Technical difficulty—Editor] now identify themselves through government programming as eligible, as having a disability, so they can take advantage of a future benefit, absolutely, but our expectation would be that the government provides significant supports already, Mr. Chair.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Should they be certified? I'm asking if is it wise for them to be certified, or will they be sort of off in that area where, with regard to the $600 one-time payment, folks are now scrambling before the end of the year to apply to qualify for that.

[Alexis Conrad]

We would encourage anyone who's eligible for a tax credit or government program for disability to apply for it, because they are there to support them. Regardless of the new benefit, I would encourage them to do it anyway. If they are in the system, then we know they have a disability and it becomes easier later.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Thank you.

Do I have time for a very short question, Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

You do. Go right ahead. I owe you.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

I'm wondering when the New Horizons program for the next year will open. December is the usual date. It wasn't last year, and we've had a very unusual year this year. Do we have a date for the opening of applications for Canada summer jobs?

[Benoît Robidoux]

Is it for Canada summer jobs, New Horizons for seniors, or both?

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

It's for both.

[Benoît Robidoux]

Okay, I have Stephanie Hébert with us. Stephanie is managing the implementation of both of these programs. She will tell us.

[Stephanie Hébert, Assistant Deputy Minister, Program Operations Branch, Service Canada, Department of Employment and Social Development]

Thank you very much for the question.

I have two points. On New Horizons for seniors, thank you to members of Parliament for all of your assistance in promoting the call. As you know, that call closed in October. We hope to be able to come back to you early in the new year to be able to advise you of the organizations that we are recommending for funding. We really did get an overwhelming demand. We were quite pleased by that.

With regard to the Canada summer jobs program, members of Parliament will be aware that we are currently engaging with you right now. We are working with you to set priorities in your respective constituencies. Those priorities will ultimately inform when we launch the public call for proposals. As my colleagues have noted, we never want to scoop a minister. Once that date has been announced, we will be able to share it. I am happy that we are starting to work with you. That should give you an indication that we hope to launch it very soon.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Kent.

Next is Ms. Young, please, for five minutes.

[Kate Young, Liberal, London West, ON]

Thank you very much.

Thank you to all of the department officials for being here tonight. This has been a very interesting conversation, and a lot of information has been gathered about seniors.

As we all know, not all seniors have the same needs. I think it's evident in what this committee is doing with indigenous housing. We're in the process of taking a really close look at urban, rural and northern indigenous housing needs. Within that are seniors' needs.

In the supplemental estimates, there are allocations, including funding to co-develop a holistic long-term care strategy with first nations and Inuit partners. I wondered if you could expand on that and tell me how that will happen and how indigenous people will benefit from this portion of funding.

[Benoît Robidoux]

Thank you for the question.

I would love to develop an answer a bit more, but it's not a file that we in the department control directly. It's really between CMHC and the Department of Indigenous Services. I think it would be a very good question for them. I know they've been working for years to try to develop that approach. I'm sure they will be quite happy to come and explain it to you.

CMHC is really in charge of that file. I don't think anybody on this panel could really give you substantive information about their plan.

[Kate Young, Liberal, London West, ON]

That's okay. It's something that I was very interested in. I will take it to someone else.

When you talk about seniors and the national housing strategy, how are they reflected in that? I know the minister talked about that briefly. Can you reflect on it?

[Benoît Robidoux]

I can. We often meet with our colleagues at CMHC about the national housing strategy. The minister is also connecting with them. We always talk with them, and whatever new measure they bring, we always try to have a seniors lens in their new investments.

When the minister was here, we were talking about long-term care facilities and what could be done. We worked with them to try to ensure that funding was available for the capital spending. We always work with them on that. Often, they would come with a carve-up for seniors or include them in the approach they were taking. We are always working with them on that, to ensure that there's a lens for seniors on their approach.

[Kate Young, Liberal, London West, ON]

Thank you very much.

We did briefly mention the extra flexibility with the registered retirement income funds. That was welcome news for a number of seniors, because reducing their withdrawals really did help, especially this year.

Do you see that extending into the next year as well?

[Benoît Robidoux]

Again, it's very hard for me to tell if it will be considered. If the pandemic keeps going the way it is, I think there are many things that we may consider again. At least we'll look at them for sure in the future, if the pandemic continues.