Human Resources Committee on April 25th, 2022

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I'll keep it quick because I don't know how much more time we have, but ask me this question again and I can talk about it all day. We're really excited about the work we're doing on skills training, particularly around apprenticeships.

We have our apprenticeship service in place. Through this recent budget, we have doubled UTIP funding. I recently was at a pipefitters' college in my own riding and visited an insulation training centre. It's just extraordinary the high-quality, good green jobs that this program is investing in and that people have access to, and how many people very openly say that this is life-changing for them, that this will enable them to provide for their family and to be able to afford a quality of life they never thought possible.

I could go on and on, Mr. Chair, but I'll leave it there. Hopefully someone can ask me another question about skills training.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Minister. His time is up by six seconds.

Ms. Chabot, you have the floor for six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Hello, Minister.

You're well aware of the reality: temporary foreign workers contribute to the economy in general. As I'm sure is the case for my colleagues, if there's one issue that I'm frequently asked about in my riding, it's processing times for temporary foreign worker applications.

The majority of businesses say that the labour shortage is the biggest problem. Next comes the issue of supply. That's why the contribution of temporary foreign workers is important.

You talked about easing rules, but are you setting up a more comprehensive and thorough reform, to cut down on the irritants that are hurting businesses? Some of them are having to abandon their projects altogether, or are losing workers. This has a negative impact on services.

Are you looking at that with the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Absolutely. I would say that one of the silver linings of the pandemic has been the acute attention that it has necessitated that we pay to the temporary foreign worker program, which wasn't perfect—I guess that's an understatement—and it has really forced us, as a government, working with provinces and territories and the stakeholders, to reconceive how we address the power imbalance within the system: how we support workers, how we remove the administrative clunkiness and burden for employers, and how we look at our compliance and integrity measures from a more risk-based approach, so that we can focus our efforts on bad actors and allow good actors in the system, of which there are so many, to get the workforce they need as quickly as possible.

We have done some really important work on the worker support side. The workforce road map was really focused on removing some of the clunkiness for employers and streamlining some of the processes. What I will note for all of you is that two of the seven sectors with demonstrated labour shortages that received an increase to the number of temporary foreign workers they can hire were hospitals and residential care facilities, so nursing and residential care facilities.

So yes, absolutely, we're working on that. That's the simple answer I can give you, but this program isn't simple at all.

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

Thank you, Minister.

I did see that the budget provides funding over three years to set up a trusted employer system. That's an interesting measure and we'll be watching it closely.

I have another question, which isn't related to the labour shortage, but which concerns support for workers. Whenever we talk about standard of living, working conditions or the social safety net, one issue remains a big problem for workers, and that's access to employment insurance. It's been really hard for them throughout the pandemic.

We were expecting EI reforms to begin in June 2022, but reading the budget, we were greatly disappointed that there was no mention of that.

Could you tell us where things stand on this issue? Can we expect to see a plan for reforming EI by June 2022?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Absolutely, and thank you for your ongoing focus on employment insurance. I think it's super important.

Again, I think what we are steadfastly committed to is modernizing EI. Again, the swing over the past years between record low unemployment, record high unemployment and going back to record low unemployment has shown us that we need an EI system that can work in all these different circumstances within the labour market.

Absolutely, we're proceeding with the modernization efforts. Obviously the first phase of that closed, and we very soon will be releasing the “what we heard” report. Phase two will move forward again very soon. We're going to announce that very soon. It's going to focus on EI adequacy and sustainability and dig in on issues from phase one that require further consultation.

All I can say is that we're going to do this. We're going to do this right. It's a very complicated effort—

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

Minister, can you tell us when that will be done? Can you clearly state that, by June 2022, you will table a plan for reforming EI? You say that you will, but I'd like to know when it will happen.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

What I can say is that we are moving forward with phase two. I can't tell you what's going to be in place by June of this year or what's going to be announced or not. It's still too early to be able to tell you that with any certainty and I don't want to create expectations I can't meet, but we are moving forward steadfastly with the modernization of EI. That remains my primary focus.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Chabot.

We have Ms. Zarrillo for six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for all the programs you mentioned that are addressing workers' needs.

Today, I want to focus on income supports for the six million Canadians you mentioned who have a disability. They did not see in the budget the Canada disability benefit.

I'll share with you, Minister, what you already know, which is that inflation is here. The cost of food and the cost of goods are going up. With REITS—real estate investment trusts—there is a lot of displacement happening in housing, based on this financialization of housing. A lot of co-ops are being lost, which heavily over-index for people with disabilities to live in. There are a number of really pressing, urgent matters around income supports right now for persons with disabilities.

I know that a number of fiscal bills have come to the floor, but not the Canada disability benefit. We are approaching a year since Bill C-35 was first introduced, and the disability community just can't wait any longer. They need a date. They need to know when this will be coming. We know that the Senate is ready to deal with it and the House is ready to deal with it.

Please, Minister, the community would like to know: When will we see this bill come to the floor?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Thank you for the question.

Of course, as you know, last year in budget 2021 we put in place $12 million over three years to consult and work with the disability community on the creation of this benefit. We just finished year one of that money. We have two more years, which is why you didn't see those kinds of specifics in this year's budget. As I have said before, we are working on reintroducing this legislation as soon as we can.

Of course, that hasn't stopped at all the work we are doing on an ongoing basis with the community and with provinces and territories to prepare for this benefit. Certainly, as I mentioned before, provincial and territorial negotiations to ensure that there aren't clawbacks and that there are no additional impacts to people's service entitlements or program entitlements are very complicated. We are working on them.

I can assure you, as was stated in our platform and my mandate letter, that we are going to reintroduce this legislation.

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

Thank you, Minister.

Minister, will it come before the summer begins?

The disability community is really suffering right now. They have been for a long time but they are really suffering under the inflation, the cost of goods and just the displacement in housing. You mentioned that there's been some additional consultation. Will they see it before the end of summer?

What are some of the changes we can anticipate in the bill?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Of course, I don't want to get into trouble for saying anything before something is on the floor of the House of Commons, but I think you can read into our commitment to reintroduce it that it won't be changed. It's going to look the same.

Again, I can't commit to that, but that's how I would interpret that language. Certainly, again, the intention is to do it as soon as possible. We're working it into the House calendar as we speak. I'm very grateful to all of you who have supported those efforts. It's an ongoing conversation. It remains a priority. I'm pursuing it vigorously.

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

Thank you, Minister.

I'm just going to follow up with a question around employment for persons with disabilities and the conversation we had last time around protections for persons with disabilities, protection of their human rights and just protection in general. That plays somewhat into the care economy.

Can you just share with us some of the thoughts or the legislation or even the programs that you might be putting in place ahead of the programs you are hoping to implement for persons with disabilities?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Are you talking specifically around personal care support workers or people who care for people with disabilities?

Is that where you're...? I just want to clarify.

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

I mean just in general, persons with disabilities who may be entering into the workforce for the first time.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I get it.

There are a couple of things. First of all, in terms of our employment strategy, historically governments have focused on supporting workers and organizations that support individuals with disabilities to find jobs. What we know is that in fact we need to support employers and increase awareness of the duty to accommodate and the business case for disability inclusion. We need to invest more in entrepreneurs with disabilities.

The employment strategy, as we are moving forward with it, is a much broader-based approach to ensuring not only that people can get jobs and have opportunities to apply for jobs but also that the conditions they are working within are more dignified and more flexible. There is some really exciting work.

The $20 million in the budget for Ready, Willing and Able is a really good example of a program that actually looks functionally at what an individual can do and then looks functionally at what an employer needs to have done and matches those two. It might take a little bit from three different job descriptions to create a really robust, meaningful and contributing role for an individual with a disability that plays to their strength. It gives the employer exactly what they need.

Yes, absolutely, that is top of mind for me, of course.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

You can have one last short question, Ms. Zarrillo.

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

You talked about Ready, Willing and Able, Minister, and municipalities are uniquely structured to be able to support such a program. I know that cities such as Edmonton and Surrey have done wonderful work in this area.

I'm just wondering if there is an opportunity to have a municipal-led program that could partner with Ready, Willing and Able.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I think that's an excellent opportunity. I'll look into it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Zarrillo.

Next we'll be going to Mrs. Goodridge and then Mr. Coteau. I believe we will have the time, then, to go to Madame Chabot and Ms. Zarrillo, to be fair, to conclude the last hour with the minister.

Mrs. Goodridge, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the minister for making a presentation here today and for being part of this study.

One thing I think we all probably hear fairly regularly in our constituencies is that, when someone finally does make it through the immigration backlog and comes here, they tend to have some pretty serious issues when it comes to their foreign credentials being recognized. This is acutely felt in the care economy.

I am wondering if you could expand a little bit on what concrete measures you are doing to ensure that the Government of Canada is responding to these concerns as quickly as possible so that these amazing people can contribute to our society and help us through these labour shortages.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Thanks for the question.

I spend a lot of time thinking about how we can make sure that we access the experience and expertise of every newcomer to Canada, and of course, from their perspective, how they can put these talents to work meaningfully after all the hard work they've done in other countries.

The foreign credential recognition program supports what I would call the labour market integration of newcomers. We fund provincial and territorial regulatory authorities. We fund organizations to help improve foreign credential recognition. We provide loan and support services to help skilled newcomers navigate these complicated processes, and we provide employment supports.

I recently visited an organization that stressed to me how important that first work experience is. It's really getting that first job in Canada in their area of expertise that makes all the difference.

We recently announced $26.5 million in funding for 11 projects across the country that do those kinds of skill and employment supports, as well as the really important work of working with provinces and territories on the regulatory side to streamline and simplify the recognition process. We're attacking it from a bunch of different fronts to make it easier, from a process point of view, to provide that first work or upskilling opportunity.

Then, to give newcomers loans, in some cases small loans but meaningful loans, to go through the process and get their credentials upskilled or recognized is really important. If we look at the labour shortage in the care economy, we know that many of these jobs can be filled by newcomers, so this is a really important piece of the puzzle to solve this.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you, Minister.

I guess many question specifically why, because of the exceptionally long backlog in our immigration process, they can't do some of this credential recognition before they arrive on Canadian soil so that they can literally hit the ground running. That's one thing I definitely hear in my constituency from people, or frustration—

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

To that point, we're doing that. We are actually working on that. Some of the organizations that we fund don't wait until people are in Canada before they give them access to what the process will be and how they can start in advance setting up interviews. That work is being done. Certainly we could do more of it, but that's exactly the kind of innovation we need under the FCR program.