Human Resources Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2024

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

What specific input have you provided on this, Minister?

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

I would point to a number of programs we've put in place to help lift children out of situations like this and to lift children out of poverty, whether that be the Canada child benefit—

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Minister, I'm referring to diverted drugs. You're not answering the question. What specific recommendations have you made to the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions to protect children from diverted drugs?

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

I've already answered this question.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

You haven't answered it, so I'll move on.

You and the Liberal government, in collaboration with the NDP, supported taxpayer-funded drugs flooding our streets and the parks and playgrounds where children play in British Columbia. This was occurring on your watch as the minister of children and families and you did nothing. It was only because of immense public pressure in British Columbia that B.C. decided to amend their policy and approach the federal government to remove the approval.

Based on the failed drug policy experiment in B.C. and based on the fact that you're the minister for children and families, would you advocate for stopping any expansion by your government to allow decriminalization in other jurisdictions, in particular in your province of Ontario?

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

Once again, respectfully, there is a minister who leads on this file. It is not me.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

You've advocated for this in the past, Minister, when you were on city council in Ottawa, so it's surprising that you're not willing to answer that question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mrs. Gray.

Mr. Van Bynen, you have five minutes.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, I'd like to get back to the portfolio you're directly influencing. I'm reminded of a phrase my father had: No deed should go unpunished. I do apologize for the smear tactics you've been exposed to.

I want to talk about the good things that are happening. Our plan for a national school food program is moving forward quickly. We know that access to healthy meals can make an immediate and impactful difference in a child's day. My wife is a retired teacher and my daughter is currently a teacher. I've seen first-hand how proper nutrition can positively affect a student's focus, energy and overall well-being. Every child deserves to be well fed at school. The benefits to families are clear, not to mention the savings for parents.

On Friday we had some great news. Can you tell us what we're doing in P.E.I.?

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

Indeed, Friday was an exciting day. I was in Charlottetown, where we announced that a fourth province has signed on to our national school food program. P.E.I., which currently has a version of a lunch program, will now be able to serve lunch, with our investments, to an additional 1,500 kids. It will be able to serve breakfast and snacks to just over an additional 800 kids. In total, that's almost half a million additional meals this school year.

I would point out that this is the fourth province that we have signed on. Just over 184,000 kids this school year so far will be able to focus on learning and will have access to healthy food at school.

I would point out that the Conservatives and their leader have taken every opportunity to oppose getting food into schools for children who need it. He's quoted as referring to this as “bureaucracy”, but I will point to the 184,000 kids so far who are getting fed at school today because of this early work.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

We also heard news from Ontario a few weeks ago. What are we doing to feed kids in Ontario? What results will we expect to see and what does this mean for families in Ontario, particularly in my riding?

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

I'm really excited. Ontario was our third province to sign on, just a few weeks ago. We made a commitment: $108.5 million over the next three years to see more kids in Ontario have access to healthy food at school. This school year, we will see an additional 160,000 children in this province access just over 9.8 million meals.

I would also point out that in Ontario, we have 13 student nutrition partners. These are organizations like the Toronto Foundation for Student Success. Here in Ottawa, it's the Ottawa Network for Education's school breakfast program. These key partners, which have worked with the provincial government in the past, will be recipients and will now be able to expand their impact and their work.

Frankly, it's really about getting more food into kids' bellies so they can focus on being kids.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

We heard earlier that these discussions are about your mandate letter. Can you share some of the key priorities you've set for your mandate?

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

Absolutely. Thank you for the question.

First, just finishing off on school food, in this year's budget, we committed a billion dollars to see an additional 400,000 kids across this country access food at school. In just a few short months, we've already been able to reach agreements with four provinces. It is my ambition to get all 13 provinces and territories signed on as quickly as possible.

We're continuing to accelerate and focus on that work. At the end of the day, this is about making sure kids can learn and focus on being kids by having access to food and about ensuring they have full bellies at school.

This is also impactful, of course, for parents. It's estimated that a family of four will save $800 in groceries this school year because of this program. It's very impactful as well in helping to address some of the affordability challenges that we recognize are out there.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Van Bynen.

Ms. Chabot, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, you are also responsible for Service Canada.

Yesterday, the Auditor General tabled reports on a number of issues, including assistance programs for seniors. When we learned that the government had not taken certain data into account to see whether the old age security pension really met seniors' needs, we pinched ourselves to make sure that was really happening. However, that's another issue.

The Auditor General also tabled a report on the issue of digital identity validation to access services. It's a very important government program. When services are provided, it must be ensured that they are secure and delivered on time. However, the Auditor General said that, according to the audit results, a digital identity validation system had not been successfully implemented. In addition, among G7 countries, Canada has fallen from second to sixth on the online administration development index. Yet, a lot of money has been invested in that.

Could you give us an update on that?

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

There are, I believe, six ministers within ESDC. I don't have responsibility for Service Canada. It's Minister Beech who oversees that particular function, as well as the particular issue you raised around digitization.

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

That said, Canadians expect to be able to turn to certain outlets to find out about the programs you deploy within your department. However, I understand that you have no responsibility in this regard. I assume that this has been removed from your mandate letter and that you are no longer responsible for Service Canada.

Concerning child care, I won't ask about the situation in Quebec. It is actually thanks to our model that you are investing in a similar program in the other provinces. What concerns me is the situation of young indigenous children. You have a specific mandate to work with indigenous partners to ensure that young children have the right to a culturally appropriate learning system.

What is your assessment of that so far?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Please give a short answer.

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

As I travel the country on occasion, I get the opportunity to visit some of the indigenous-focused early learning and child care centres. I see first-hand the impact of culturally appropriate care that incorporates traditions and incorporates early learning educators who are able to support indigenous children and ensure care is culturally inclusive and appropriate. There's a myriad of projects across the country, and I'm happy to share those with you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Chabot.

Ms. Zarrillo, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you so much.

Minister, I note that today you mentioned there are a lot of ministries. I just want to point out that this committee sees at minimum seven ministries and a number of Crown corporations, including the CMHC, which are some of the largest, but we are still able to ask questions, get answers to questions and have a full understanding of those files. I'm a bit concerned today about the number of responses that have come back that say it's somebody else's ministry.

I'm asking, Minister, if you would share with your cabinet that it's important they modernize the way they're thinking about these issues. Even Canadian Tire sells food, and grocery stores sell toys. Every single type of business has had to modernize, cross over and intersect. I'm really disappointed today that we've seen the antiquated way the Liberal government has set up their department. That's a message from the NDP. It's a message from me that they really need to modernize.

I'm going to go back to the AG report on seniors, which said ESDC was not analyzing the data on the programs the government was offering for seniors to see if they were sufficient. What work is your department doing to ensure the programs you're responsible for are sufficient? I'll add on to that a secondary question, if you can answer it: How are you making sure indigenous children are getting the supports they need?

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

First of all, I thank the AG and her team for the report. It's certainly not an easy job, but I think it's helpful. It helps to provide us guidance as we reflect on the report. There are always ways we can improve and, for this report in particular, improve the ways we can better support seniors.

I might pass it over to ADM Catherine Adam for the interdepartmental stuff.

[Catherine Adam]

In terms of the recent Auditor General's report, we take those findings very seriously as a department. We'll be working to see what we can do going forward to ensure the adequacy of the retirement income system we have in Canada and to make sure we can really dig into disaggregating data to get a fuller picture. It's going to be important, and it is important to the department and to officials that we're doing that regularly with almost all of our programs and services.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you. We will close with five and five.

Mrs. Gray, you have five minutes.