Human Resources Committee on May 30th, 2023

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

That is precisely why we're moving forward with the Canada-wide agreement to create 250,000 additional spaces. This is exactly one of the reasons this is so important.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

You removed those words from your own amendment.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Those words remain in the bill in other places. It's a question of having integrity throughout the piece of legislation. It doesn't have to be repeated several times for it to remain within the legislation.

Regardless, that's also why we have committed to creating 250,000 spaces, 50,000 of which have already been created. We recognize that for this program to be a success, parents need to be able to access it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Ferreri.

We go now to Mr. Long for five minutes.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon to my colleagues. Thank you to the ministers for coming this afternoon.

Minister O'Regan, you visited my wonderful riding of Saint John—Rothesay several months back. We went out to the New Brunswick Community College of St. John. We met with many students. In fact, we had a wonderful announcement with respect to interest on student loans and the payback limit on what they have to pay back.

I just wonder if you could elaborate briefly on how important an announcement like that is for our students across the country.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I think it was written on their faces on that day, Mr. Long. This was intended as an investment in our future, and it was something we heard loud and clear from students and student organizations.

It's particularly poignant in the place where we were when we were talking about skilled trades. We are incredibly deficient, unfortunately, in the skilled trades area. We have too many university degrees and not enough Red Seals. We have to change that in a hurry.

I can tell you that nobody is myopic about this sort of stuff. It's not just the three of us here, but our fellow ministers as well. We are all trying to work together to figure out how we get more people in the skilled trades and how we get more people in the workforce to match the trades they have.

One of the ways we can encourage people to take the skilled trades program is to alleviate some of the debt burden for them.

It was such a great day, because everybody there was so excited about the skilled trades.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

I just want to follow up on that.

Whether it's the doubling of Canada summer jobs that we did over the course of the previous Conservative government, the waiving of interest or the raising of the limit, we've been there for students. I think that's abundantly clear.

There's UTIP: Also at NBCC, we talked about the union training and innovation program and how important that is to train tomorrow's skilled workers to help us get to net zero.

Can you just elaborate on that briefly, please, Minister?

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I think I remember the conversation I had with Minister Qualtrough about this. I am going to give her some of the benefit here, because I worked with Carla on UTIP.

I am personally very committed and very passionate about sustainable jobs, which until we rebranded it, was a concept commonly known as “just transition”. We don't say those words anymore. It's like we don't say “Voldemort”. Workers don't like “just transition”. They hate it. It's become too loaded with negative meaning.

What we're really talking about is increasing opportunity in the energy sector. In fact, the reason I have to leave to catch a flight is that I'm speaking to Energy NL tomorrow, which used to be the Offshore Oil Industries Association for Newfoundland and Labrador, dealing solely with oil. They're now called Energy NL. They deal with renewables, with hydrogen, with wind. They deal with everything.

The opportunity for workers now is huge.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Thank you, Minister.

Minister Gould, we see right across the country, from coast to coast to coast, in western and eastern Canada and in the north, wildfires raging.

In fact, the riding beside mine, New Brunswick Southwest, is literally on fire. I know the MP for New Brunswick Southwest describes climate change as “just weather”, but we know that's not the case.

The area near Saint Andrews, the Bocabec area, is profoundly impacted. It affects people's lives and livelihoods. Government benefits and entitlements are critically important for those fleeing their homes and subject to evacuation orders.

Could you please share with the committee what ESDC is doing to support people affected by these natural disasters, and how this fits into the Government of Canada's larger emergency response strategy?

Thank you.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Of course, Mr. Long.

Also, to those who are affected by wildfires, we just want them to know that the Government of Canada is there to support them.

We have been very deliberate at Service Canada, for example, to ensure that folks who have had to flee because of wildfires have easier access to EI. They are not required to provide an ROE when applying for their EI. We're working very closely with folks to get them onto direct deposit, understanding that a cheque that might be sent might not make it if they have to leave their home.

We are geotargeting with advertising online to make sure that information is available to them.

We've set up additional points of service in nearby communities to make sure they are supported, but we really want to ensure that people get access to the benefits they need.

I know Service Canada has also reached out to employers, temporary foreign workers, and Canada summer jobs to do wellness checks and to make sure they're there to support them through this very difficult time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Long. Your time is up.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister Qualtrough, I want to talk about pilot projects for seasonal workers again. These pilot projects affect 13 socio-economic regions. We won't be seeing a reform anytime soon; in fact, we don't know when it will happen. So I understand that you're not going to reform the system. Perhaps a pilot project was carried out without reform because it remains a pilot project. However, you could improve things for many people working in seasonal industries.

Recommendations were made to the Standing Committee on Finance that Bill C‑47 be amended to improve the pilot projects and make them permanent. Are you prepared to study this improvement as part of passing Bill C‑47?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

As I said, I'm always open to amendments and changes that improve programs, but at the same time we're trying not to make too many minor changes to the system, because that's one of the reasons it's so complicated now. However, this will be part of the broader modernization plan.

Maybe—

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

No, that's fine, I've got my answer: You have no major improvement plan. So my question is, can we correct the things that can be corrected? I don't want technical details on pilot projects, which I'm familiar with. Plus, the redistribution of socio-economic regions has been on your desk for two years, and you haven't moved forward on that either. We're moving at a snail's pace.

So I have my answer: You're open, but you won't make a firm commitment by saying, for example, that by summer, we can at least improve and make the pilot projects permanent. Is that what you're saying, yes or no?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I'll turn to Jean-François.

[Jean-François Tremblay]

The review of socio-economic region boundaries will begin this year. As you know, it happens every five years.

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

Minister Gould, we have information from Service Canada—it's not just hearsay—that information about Canadians will no longer be available to MPs and advocacy groups that support unemployed workers in their efforts to obtain employment insurance. Can you explain that change and where it came from?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Yes, of course. Thank you for the question.

As we've said before on this committee, it's not necessarily a change in policy, but rather an application of policy. It is important for us, as the Government of Canada, to protect the personal information of Canadians.

As far as MP access to this information is concerned, I will follow up with the departments, because it's important to ensure that Canadians who run into problems with Service Canada programs, whether it be employment insurance or others, can turn to their MPs for help.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you very much, Ms. Chabot.

Madam Zarrillo, you have two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to make a statement very quickly, because there are few opportunities to plant seeds and there are lots of people here today. I want to talk about menstrual products. One time when Minister O'Regan was here, we talked about this. I know it's part of the Canada Labour Code, but there are also the free products that will be rolling out to federal workplaces.

I just wanted to mention, on the procurement front, that a number of Canadian manufacturers do both reusable and more sustainable products. I would just like to put that out there. We'd love to see some of that taken advantage of in these new programs and perhaps even for the labour code to talk about reusables.

I did want to go back to the labour shortages study that came out of the HUMA committee. Recommendation 16 was around having the federal government “consider establishing a national Care Economy Commission”, which would be around developing, implementing and monitoring workforce planning.

I'll ask you, Minister Qualtrough, because it would fall in your area, but I think it's also a cross-pollination of immigration and labour. I just wondered if that was a recommendation that was discussed or thought about. Is there an opportunity to start this care economy commission across ministries?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I wouldn't want to commit to what we would call it, but the idea of a horizontal, cross-government approach to the care economy, I think, is very much overdue. What we are doing as ministers across departments, including Health, ESDC—I want to make sure I get them all—and Immigration, is working together on different aspects of the care economy. Now we have a ministerial working group that's trying to bring it all together.

It could head in that direction, but I think it's premature right now to say that's where it would go. Your point is very well taken. We need to make sure there's a better, more coordinated effort on that front.

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

I hear there's a ministerial working group. Could this committee please get the details of that working group?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

It's informal. We form these teams around issues that cross our departments, but yes, I guess I could tell you who's on it.

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

Thank you.

I'll just close out, Minister Qualtrough, on Bill C-22. We are all anxiously waiting for that to come to the House. I know that on the NDP side we're ready to see that come through. We'd like to see it all happen before we rise for the summer.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

It will.