Evidence of meeting #112 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was service.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Mr. Long was allowed to proceed with a line of questioning that was favourable to the minister. Just because my questions are uncomfortable for the minister, I think—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Yes, and I agreed to let it go, provided you let the minister respond.
Conservative
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
I didn't finish asking the question.
Liberal
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Minister, did you participate in funding announcements for this organization from a company that you are still cashing cheques from?
Conservative
Liberal
Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB
—I am a minister for Alberta. If there's an announcement happening in my province and I can go to it, I will go to it. At no point since, Mr. Barrett—
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Even if you got them the money?
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
I'm going to give the minister the opportunity to respond very quickly, because this is going to end. We are going to move on. Your time has gone by. I've allowed you to stay in the question.
Mr. Minister, wrap it up quickly.
Liberal
Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB
Mr. Chair, to be really, crystal clear, I have never had line authority to provide any funding to the Edmonton International Airport or, quite frankly, any of the clients that I mentioned.
I have not been the Minister of Transport. I've not been the minister of PrairiesCan.
Will I announce something in my region that supports a major airport and jobs? Absolutely, I will.
Mo monies were transferred. That grant went to the Edmonton airport, not the company in question.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Thank you, Mr. Barrett.
Thank you, Mr. Boissonnault.
Mr. Collins, you have five minutes.
Liberal
Chad Collins Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, Minister.
I'll get us back to committee business. Last week, I had the opportunity to meet with Michael Braithwaite from Blue Door. They work out of the York, Durham and Peel region, otherwise known as “Tony Van Bynen territory”. They're well known in the region for providing transitional housing, as well as emergency shelter support for those people who need it. What most people don't know about Blue Door is that they offer the construct program, which is a skills training program that's launched about 500 people into the skilled trades.
I know you're very well aware, Minister, that we have a very aggressive housing policy. Our national housing strategy promotes new housing in both the non-profit sector and the market sector.
I'm wondering if you can share with the committee how we could seek to support organizations like Blue Door, which is offering these services in co-operation with LiUNA, local colleges and the private sector.
Can you share with the committee what ESDC's doing with our housing plan, and how we're supporting the building of skilled trades numbers across the country?
Liberal
Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB
Absolutely, Mr. Collins. I referenced it in my opening remarks.
We invest about a billion dollars a year in the apprenticeship space—grants, loans and EI benefits—for apprentices. One of the big sectors is the construction sector.
I had this conversation with my counterparts at the provincial level early in this mandate. We have to esteem the trades earlier, but at the same time, we have 98% of companies in this country that are small and medium-size enterprises, like in “Tony Van Bynen country” and in your backyard. It's really hard for them to figure out how to bring an apprentice on when it's a guy and his cousin who have three people and a truck, and they're building houses or they're roofing. How do you put an apprentice on that?
There's money in the budget—I think it's $90 million—to do something to get apprentices on the job sites with small and medium-sized enterprises. I'm very excited about that. We pushed hard and we got it done. When I met with BILD Calgary, that was the number one ask they had for me. How do we get apprentices on the ground, literally on site, with small and medium-sized enterprises? That's number one.
Number two is that I need help from everybody around this table to esteem the trades earlier in life. The next time you're at a meeting, or it's the summertime and you're having beers with your friends, or you're around the family table and you have the grumpy aunt or uncle who says, “The trades are a bad idea. They're a second-class career,” correct it. They're first-class, amazing jobs. The trades are the way of the future.
Friends, we have 700,000 skilled tradespeople retiring in the next five years. The time is now.
I will say to the officials, great job for doing an award-winning campaign to scope more young people in, and there's $10 million in the budget to get more young people into the trades.
Liberal
Chad Collins Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Let me follow that up with my question on how we work with school boards to illustrate to kids coming through the elementary and, by extension, high school programs that skilled trades should be an occupation of first choice. Currently, they're not, and we don't see promotion at that level trying to steer children to an area that they may not see as their first choice from an occupation perspective.
Can I ask what conversations happened through the department in trying to encourage that conversation to at least take place? If they decide to go in a different direction, that's great, but I think there's a missed opportunity. My kids are now both in university; those conversations didn't happen with them throughout high school, and they should have.
Liberal
Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB
It's amazing. I'm the outlier in my family. I'm a kid from skilled trades. I got an IBEW scholarship to go to the University of Alberta in 1988. It was $500. That paid for half a semester of tuition and books. I was the academic kid. My brother is actually in the skilled trades. So is my nephew. My niece is looking at it. I think we have to have a societal attitude shift about this.
When I came in, I said, “Let's look at the German model.” The German model streams people based on their aptitude. You go the academic route, or you go the trades route. Some, like Senator Bellemare and others, have said, “Look, let's have tripartite advice to the ministry on how we can get labour, employment and government all working together.” I want to see that higher level of coordination.
When it comes to making sure that the trades are esteemed, I don't agree with everything the Ford government does, but I think they've cottoned on to something with the announcement that Minister Lecce made earlier this week. If those students still achieve their academic excellence—they still have to make the marks—the ability to stream them in and have them get skills in the trades while they're in high school.... I think that's an innovative model. We have to see how it works and then see it take place across the country.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Thank you.
Ms. Chabot, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.
Bloc
Louise Chabot Bloc Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I could give you the opportunity to complete your answer to my long question, but I'll ask you a shorter one.
I think it's obvious to everyone that, as a minister and as a government, you've abandoned a flagship measure for workers, that of comprehensively reforming and modernizing the employment insurance system.
Do you recognize that one of the main problems with the plan is access?
Liberal
Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB
What access problem are you talking about? Do you have an example? Are you talking about time criteria, Ms. Chabot?
Bloc
Louise Chabot Bloc Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
I'm talking about access, eligibility criteria that discriminate against workers. Out of ten workers who pay into the plan, six don't have access to employment insurance.
And yet, we've opened a door for you. All labour organizations, unemployed groups and the Canadian Labour Congress have opened a door for you. Until we arrive together—that's what they want—at a comprehensive reform of employment insurance, are you ready to immediately put in place the temporary measures that existed in the context of the emergency measures?
We can't say there's a problem with applying the measures. They would be applicable. Are you ready to move forward? Are you going to give them an answer?
Liberal
Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB
Yes, absolutely, I'll get back to them. We're working on it with the ministry. One of the most important requests from this coalition, made up of unions and other organizations, was about our plan for the Employment Insurance Board of Appeal.
Bloc