Human Resources Committee on Feb. 7th, 2023

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

Thank you so much.

Mr. Chair, do I have any more time left?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

No. That's it.

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

Okay.

Thank you so much, Minister and officials.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

You've used your time.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Madam Minister, with respect to temporary foreign workers or labour market impact studies, I understand that you intend to put in the necessary efforts to better support employers' requests for timely services. This is another example of the delays at Service Canada that employers have been very vocal about. This is in addition to delays in Employment Insurance and passport issuance.

Service Canada is not your responsibility, but the Employment Insurance program and Labour Market Impact Studies, or LMIAs, do fall under your purview, but are enforced by Service Canada. In terms of LMIAs, are you really committed to ensuring that the application processes for employers are expedited so that they receive a timely response?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Absolutely, we have service standards; I think Mr. MacPhee could provide an update on that.

Mike, is it you who can tell us exactly where we are on service standards with LMIAs?

[Michael MacPhee, Assistant Deputy Minister, Temporary Foreign Workers Program, Department of Employment and Social Development]

Yes. Thank you very much.

In terms of the LMIA processing time, we actually have made good strides in improving the pace. Year over year, despite seeing a 37% increase in the volume of LMIAs—and that's this year up until the end of January compared with the full last fiscal year—we've actually improved the processing time writ large across all different streams by almost five business days.

In the Quebec region specifically, there are additional delays. This is because it is a joint process with a Quebec ministry.

However, even in that case, we have worked very closely with the Quebec region, and over the course of this fiscal year, we have improved our processing time by 18.4 business days, moving it from 52 days at the beginning of the year down to 34 business days at this point in time.

We continue to work very closely to improve that processing time.

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

Thank you for your reply.

Madam Minister, I will never tire of asking you about EI reform. When are you going to do it?

We think it is vital, not only for workers, but also for our economy. You have committed to modernizing this law. We expect you to get on with it soon. Information technology cannot be an excuse for not moving forward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Chabot.

Now we have Madam Zarrillo for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I want to revisit the financial security pillar of the inclusion action plan. This relates specifically to....

Minister, both you and I live in British Columbia, and we know how expensive it is to live there. We know that the disability community is relying on the food banks now. It has become so expensive to live, and the financial supports just aren't there for persons living with disabilities.

I just want to talk a little bit about what happened last week in my riding. A number of faith-based organizations came forward to me and said that we really need to do something to alleviate the suffering and this exorbitant cost of living in relation to food for persons living with disabilities. I have been asking over and over again, Minister, for an emergency relief benefit, some sort of relief for persons with disabilities who are now making impossible choices about whether they have an adequate meal for the day.

I am just going to ask again, Minister. Is there an opportunity to have an emergency relief benefit for persons with disabilities? We've seen before the Liberal government step up and help large corporations when they were in need. This is a compassionate request. It's human rights. It's dignity. I want to know where you are at with this, Minister.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I, too, stay awake at night worrying about what's going on in the disability community. I can't think of a word to describe the levels of poverty and the worry.

Listen. We want to focus on a long-term solution, and we heard during Bill C-22 testimony that it's what they want. We don't want to divert any of our resources away from delivering the disability benefit. I think the call to action is to get this through the Senate, get this through the regulatory process and be ready to deliver it as soon as possible by focusing all of our effort precisely on the delivery of the CDB and not diverting resources to anything other than the task at hand, which is the CDB.

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

Minister, when you talk about diverting resources, do you mean funds? If so, what are the resources that we're going to see in budget 2023 for Bill C-22?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

What I mean there—I apologize—is more human resources, technical resources, processing resources. In terms of this year's budget, as I may have quipped before, it's a bit of a career-limiting move to scoop the finance minister on any budget, but we have made a commitment to the CDB as a government. We have to go through a few more steps with the Senate and the regulatory process. I have said that we will deliver the benefit in 2024, and that's what we're working toward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Madam Zarrillo and Madam Minister.

Madam Gray, you have five minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, in November you announced an extension of EI sickness benefits from 15 weeks to 26 weeks, to go into effect December 18, 2022.

On December 9, I wrote to you regarding concerns from Canadians that this extension may not be retroactive for those who applied before December 18, 2022. It's now February and I still have not received a response from you, so can you answer this question for me now?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Thanks for the question. I apologize for the non-response. That's not something I'm terribly proud of. I apologize.

What I can tell you is that the sickness benefits, the extension, came into play mid-December and will not be retroactive to existing claims. It will only apply to claims that were started on or after that date.

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

Thank you for that clarification, Minister. There will be people who will be happy to hear your response, although not happy with what the response is because, in particular, there are people who had to apply just before December 18 because of their personal circumstances. How do you reconcile, when your government's promise is to create a more flexible and inclusive EI program, not making this retroactive between the date of your announcement and December 18?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

It has as much to do with the.... We needed to pick a date and we needed for the legislation and the legislative changes to come into effect on a certain date. The legislation was not retroactive. It was felt that it would be more—I would say “equitable” is not quite the word—fair to have a date that we would deliver this on moving forward as opposed to picking some date in the past, which would also have said a lot.

Any time you establish a date in any of these programs there are people on either side of it, and that's the best we could come up with that, in my mind, was the most fair way forward on this. That is, it was not to go retroactive but to go for new claims. That was the decision that was made.

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

Thank you, Minister. Although perhaps when you said you picked a date, picking the date that something is applicable as opposed to in the future might have really clarified things for people.

I will go on to something else.

Minister, as you know, my Conservative colleague Jacques Gourde has a private member's bill to further extend these benefits to 52 weeks. This committee, including your Liberal colleagues here, voted unanimously to adopt the bill during study.

Will your government support providing a royal recommendation to this legislation so that it can be adopted?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

As I said earlier, we are making good on our platform commitment and my mandate commitment to go from 15 to 26 weeks.

As we look to modernize the program, this recommendation and any others that we heard, which were in the hundreds.... I dare say more than that, but let's say “hundreds” conservatively. This recommendation will fall into the broader modernization path as opposed to one of ongoing decisions.

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

Minister, this isn't just a recommendation coming out of consultation. This is actually a private member's bill that went through the entire process, came to this committee and was voted on, so it's really disappointing to hear that you're not going to support providing this legislation a royal recommendation.

I'll go on to another question.

Minister, according to the estimates, $125,000 was transferred from ESDC to the Department of Natural Resources regarding the two billion trees program. Why was this transfer made?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Thank you.

Karen or J.-F...?

[Karen Robertson]

This was a transfer to Natural Resources Canada to support the planting of 25,000 trees. It includes everything from the site preparation to the planting, to the monitoring activities to support a high survivability rate of the trees.

Can I answer further?

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

I think that answers what it was actually for. What's ESDC's role in this?

I'm surprised that the minister didn't have the answer, because in fact the minister is here to answer questions about estimates, but I'll put it back over to you.

[Karen Robertson]

It supports our green plan, like any other department has.