Human Resources Committee on Nov. 26th, 2020

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

I call this meeting to order.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to meeting number 7 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.

I regret to inform you of the unavoidable absence of our chair. He has encountered some travel delays, but he should be joining us within the hour. In the meantime, I will preside as vice-chair until his arrival.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of September 23, 2020. Proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. So that you are aware, the website will always show the person speaking rather than the entire committee.

To ensure an orderly meeting, I'd like to outline a few rules to follow.

Members and witnesses may speak in the official language of their choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of “Floor”, “English” or “French”.

As a reminder, all comments by members should be addressed through the chair, and when you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute. With regard to a speaking list, the clerk and I will do the best we can to maintain a consolidated order of speaking for all members, whether they are participating virtually or in person.

Now I will get to our business.

Pursuant to Standing Order 81(4) and the order of reference of Wednesday, September 30, 2020, and pursuant to Standing Order 81(5) and the order of reference of Thursday, October 22, 2020, the committee will continue our consideration of the main estimates for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, and the supplementary estimates (B) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021.

I would now like to welcome our witnesses.

We have the Honourable Deb Schulte, Minister of Seniors, and from the Department of Employment and Social Development, we have Benoît Robidoux, associate deputy minister; Mark Perlman, chief financial officer; Alexis Conrad, senior assistant deputy minister, income security and social development branch; Cliff Groen, senior assistant deputy minister, benefits and integrated service delivery branch, Service Canada; and Stephanie Hébert, assistant deputy minister, Service Canada.

Minister, welcome. You have five minutes for your opening remarks.

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, Minister of Seniors]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and hon. members of the committee.

As Minister of Seniors, I thank you very much for inviting me to speak about the 2020-21 main estimates and supplementary estimates (B) for Employment and Social Development Canada.

It's a pleasure to be here with you, and also to be here with my officials.

As Minister Qualtrough and Minister Hussen shared with you a few weeks ago, the main estimates for 2020-21 represent a total of $68.6 billion in planned budgetary expenditures for ESDC. This is a net increase of $3.8 billion over the 2019-20 main estimates of $64.8 billion. This is primarily due to normal increases in the number of beneficiaries of old age security and the guaranteed income supplement, as well as inflation adjustments.

In the supplementary estimates, ESDC is requesting $1.2 million related to government advertising programs, and this funding will support two advertising campaigns. One will raise awareness of federal programs and services that benefit seniors and the other will support accessibility in the workplace for persons with disabilities.

Ensuring that seniors are aware of their benefits and the benefits that are available to them is vitally important, especially during this pandemic, and these programs will help keep seniors informed.

As Minister of Seniors, it is my responsibility to ensure that federal programs and services meet the needs of seniors.

Our government has been working to provide Canadian seniors with greater financial security and quality of life. We restored the age of eligibility for old age security and the guaranteed income supplement to 65. We increased the guaranteed income supplement for single seniors and increased the earnings exemption. We increased the Canada pension plan's maximum yearly benefit for future retirees by about 50%. It is well recognized that the pandemic has brought stress and challenges to Canada's seniors. In response, we've put in place a number of measures to support seniors' financial security and well-being during these challenging times.

In April, we provided a GST credit supplement to over four million low- and middle-income seniors, and in July we provided a one-time payment to seniors eligible for old age security, plus extra support for those eligible for the guaranteed income supplement. Through these measures, we've provided about $900 for low-income single seniors and over $1,500 for low-income senior couples, all tax-free, in addition to their existing benefits.

Through the New Horizons program for seniors, the federal government funded over 2,000 community projects across the country to support seniors. Many of these projects have helped seniors connect online for the very first time by providing low-cost Internet access, tablets and help on how to use them, and group activities like exercise classes and meditation. Others help seniors continue to access food and critical services such as medical appointments.

Furthermore, we temporarily extended the guaranteed income supplement and allowance payments for seniors who couldn't file their income information on time. While long-term care facilities fall under provincial and territorial regulation, we invested in infection prevention, wage top-ups and PPE, and we opened up federal infrastructure funds to long-term care homes.

Looking forward, our government will work with the provinces and territories to set new national standards for long-term care so that seniors can get the support they need. We'll take additional action to help people stay in their homes longer, and we remain committed to increasing old age security by 10% once a senior turns 75.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to explain the measures we're taking to meet our commitments.

It's my pleasure to respond to your questions.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Thank you, Minister.

We'll proceed to the first round of questions now, a six-minute round, with Ms. Falk of the Conservative party.

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

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here today.

We all know that seniors have been hit particularly hard during this pandemic, whether it's social isolation or their health. It's been a very difficult year. We know this is true, and even more so for seniors who are living in long-term care facilities.

These challenges in long-term care are not new challenges. This committee actually has a report from the previous Parliament called "Advancing Inclusion and Quality of Life for Seniors". There were a number of recommendations to address this issue in it. We do know that there have been outbreaks happening, and this is continuing. Now we're in the second wave. Fatalities are on the rise. There's need for immediate action from every level of government. Every level of government has some type of jurisdictional responsibility.

Chronic understaffing, recruitment and retention are major concerns in long-term care. Minister, how are you working with the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion to address the labour shortage?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

Thank you very much for that question.

We are very focused on supporting the provinces and territories in helping them to deliver health care during this pandemic and to make the system more robust for infection and prevention.

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

Are you working directly with the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

Yes. Minister Qualtrough and I are working within the committee that we have set up to help work on issues that are being addressed in this pandemic, so yes, we are both on the committee. We've been working since the pandemic was declared to work together on multitude of initiatives. Obviously, we are aware that the workforce of PSWs is not adequate and that the shortage was causing stresses—

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

Have there been actions to address that?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

Yes. Just so you know, we provided funding to the Red Cross. The Red Cross has been working—

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

I mean for staffing particularly.

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

Yes, it was particularly in staffing. They have been training up people to be able to fill PSW roles in long-term care—

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

The Red Cross is training PSWs.

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

We have provided funding to the Red Cross. This is a multi-level approach to support. Provinces and territories are doing it. We are also supporting them through the Red Cross in long-term care facilities. The Red Cross is training up people to be able to go in and fill those positions. As you see in the supplementary estimates (B), we've also been working to make sure that we also are supporting getting more PSWs into the system. That's in our program.

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

How many PSWs have been trained?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

We just received the authority to move forward on this in September, so we're working to rapidly ramp that up.

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

So it hasn't happened?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

I know that you've had good discussions already with Minister Qualtrough on this point. Maybe what I could do is turn it over to the officials if you'd like to get some more details.

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

That's okay. I can follow up with them in the next round.

I have a question for you, Minister, regarding your provincial counterparts. Have you met with them thus far during the COVID-19 pandemic to discuss long-term care specifically?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

The discussions specific to long-term care are occurring under the provincial-territorial ministries of health. They are having those discussions almost weekly. I am following up on other initiatives to support seniors with my counterparts. We've met one time already, but I've had many phone calls. I just recently had one yesterday with Minister Pon in Alberta as we're preparing for our next meeting next week. We are in constant contact. I'm getting texts and emails and I'm making phone calls to my colleagues to make sure that we are there to support seniors during this very challenging time.

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

Thank you.

Minister, I have had the opportunity to speak to many individuals working in long-term care and to groups that represent those who do. We know that the throne speech included a commitment to explicitly penalize those who neglect seniors who are under their care. Some of these groups have expressed a serious concern with long-term care workers being vilified for care standards that are impossible to meet, given the lack of resources and supplies that are provided for them.

There's a concern that this would actually only further make recruitment and retention in the long-term care sector more difficult and ultimately lower the care that is available to them.

Minister, are you aware of these concerns? If you are, have you brought them forward to the justice minister?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

Yes, I am working closely with my counterpart, the Minister of Justice, to make sure that we are strengthening the—

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

To criminalize workers?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

No. It's to make sure that we hold people accountable when they have neglected—

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

Right, but Minister, if there is not proper PPE and there aren't proper supplies that these PSWs and nurses, whether it's LPNs or RNs, need to do their job, isn't that actually setting them up for failure and for criminalization, if that's the route that your government decides to go?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

There's no intent to set anyone up for failure. The intent here is to hold people accountable for wilful neglect and abuse of seniors.

What we have done is made sure that we do have PPE going to the provinces and territories, and they're distributing that to the long-term care facilities. We're making sure that we have helped bolster them with the resources for the employees, the PSWs who are required to be in the system, and we are providing additional funding for a wage top-up, because we know wages are an issue and need to be addressed as well.

In the pandemic, we temporarily topped up wages to make sure that we had the resources that were needed in those facilities to help strengthen the response.