Human Resources Committee on Feb. 7th, 2023

[Jean-François Tremblay]

I think the CFO can answer the question.

[Karen Robertson, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Department of Employment and Social Development]

Mr. Chair, although I wasn't here in 2017, I can attest to the fact that there are statements of work for all of our files that go forward for procurement.

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

Thank you.

Was a contract strategy done for this review? Can anyone answer?

[Karen Robertson]

I'll get that answer for you. I'm sorry, but it predates me. I will get back to you.

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

That's great. Could we have tabled for this committee both the statement of work and the contract strategy for this review that KPMG did, please?

Minister, was there a ministerial sign-off on this review by you or your predecessor?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

As you noted, it predates me. I will have to confirm that. It depends on the amount of any given contract whose authority is sought to sign off on it. We can get that information for you.

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

That's great. Thank you.

In some respects, it's surprising that we don't have this information, considering that your government has just tabled Bill C-37, which this review led up to. I would have thought everyone would have been more prepared to answer those questions. We'll go on to something else.

Minister, in September 2022, you told the House, in Parliament, that Parliament would know the government's vision for EI by the end of 2022, and that time has now come and gone. This is creating a lot of uncertainty. It's a lot of stress for working people as well as businesses in terms of both what they may need to pay and who may be accessing it. When will the plan be announced?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Thanks for the question.

As I've previously testified, we continue to refine the plan. It's important to me that we get it right and that we take into account everything that's been advised, all the submissions and what we heard in the consultations. We are not ready to release it, but it will be released soon.

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

Minister, are you planning to release it prior to budget 2023?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I'm not in a position to make that promise at this point. I don't know when it will be released. As I said, there are a lot of moving parts, and this is proving to be incredibly complicated. If we want to get it right and avoid the piecemeal approach of the past, we're going to take the time to do it.

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

Are you expecting it to be sometime this year, Minister, in 2023?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Yes, I am for this year, but I heard you about when I have said before that I would deliver this, and I want to be as honest as I can about this, as forthright as I can. We are in the position of refinement.

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

Minister, are you planning on bringing forth legislation for EI reform, or are you going to be doing it in regulation as you've done with other government services?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

As I've testified, there will be IT, legislative, regulatory, financial and phased components to this. Yes, absolutely there will be legislative changes required, and it will depend on the order of sequencing of changes as to how and when that needs to happen.

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

It's all pretty vague.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Madam Minister.

Now we will go to Mr. Coteau for five minutes.

You have the floor.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here today with the committee. I know you've been quite busy with many files, so we do appreciate your time.

I'm interested in students and how they contribute to the labour challenges we as a country have. I'm looking for ways to eliminate barriers that exist and that prevent and take away from one's being successful in post-secondary or throughout the apprenticeship programs.

I was quite happy when I saw in the fall economic statement the elimination of interest being applied. I had to use OSAP, and I think after post-secondary my final bill was about $56,000 to pay back. The interest was something that was always a challenge because as you were paying, you could see the cost going up.

If you can, I'd like you to talk a little bit about this component of your mandate letter. What will be the impact of the elimination of interest on student loans? In effect, how many people overall will it impact?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

It's a really exciting initiative and will make a significant difference in the lives of so many students, both as they work to pay off existing student loans and as they contemplate post-secondary education for the future.

Currently, there are about 1.8 million students who owe student loans. All of them are currently benefiting from the temporary freeze on interest, and those who haven't paid their loan off in the next couple of months will benefit from the permanent removal of interest from student loans. It goes hand in hand with our other efforts, whether it was doubling student grants or whether it was apprenticeship service. We're really trying to support a wide variety of opportunities and learner types, whether it's skilled trades, skilled training for existing workers or new entrants to post-secondary.

It's hard to quantify the impact, but the way the Canada student financial loan program works in Canada has resulted in some very effective ways of minimizing—not eliminating but minimizing—student debt, and eliminating interest is certainly a big part of the success story for students moving forward.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

I also saw, at least in the mandate letter, that there's an increase of 50% for the maximum debt forgiveness for family doctors and people within the medicine sector. Can you talk a little bit about that and how it impacts nurses and doctors?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Yes, absolutely.

When you look at where we need nurses and doctors, you see that we need nurses and doctors in rural communities. This is a program and an opportunity that incentivizes and affords doctors and nurses to contemplate the practice of rural medicine—I guess that's how I would say it—by allowing access to a reduction in their loans for the time period they're in those communities.

I don't have more details on the timeline for that. Is there an official in the room who can help me out with this one?

[Atiq Rahman, Assistant Deputy Minister, Learning Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development]

The timeline for the 50% increase is later this year, pending regulatory approvals. It was announced in budget 2022. We are working on the implementation of the measure, again, pending regulatory approvals.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Thank you, Atiq.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you.

When we say “rural communities”, do you have any idea at this point how “rural community” will be defined? Will it just be by the Canadian standard? Are there any more details on who will be eligible, which kinds of communities across the country will be eligible, for folks to go to serve and get that reduction?

[Atiq Rahman]

The definition of rural and remote communities is somewhat technical. It's based on Statistics Canada's definition of “census metropolitan area” and “census agglomeration”. We exclude some of the urban areas from that definition. Budget 2022 also announced a commitment to review that definition, and that part is under way as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Coteau.