Human Resources Committee on Feb. 10th, 2022

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

I have to say that I am confounded to hear that the department is so proud of these results, which are still focused on the service standard. We are never given the exact figures. The figures we've just been given don't take into account all the people who fall outside the service standard, and we know there are many of them. So there is no reason to take pride in the results of this survey. I wonder what exactly we're talking about when we talk about EI in the context of the pandemic.

Madam Minister, you said that Service Canada hired up to 3,000 people during the pandemic. Of that number, how many people are still working at Service Canada?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

That's a good question.

About 16,000 people may have been victims of fraud and are undergoing identity verification. Service Canada has already contacted these individuals and corrected the benefit calculations of almost 3,000 people in the past week. Further adjustments will be made. However, it is important to note that not all claims are necessarily legitimate. This is why Service Canada must verify the identity of clients.

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

Madam Minister, I'm sorry, perhaps my question was not clear. I wanted to know, in terms of human resources, how many people are still working at Service Canada.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Oh, I'm sorry.

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

The officials told us that 3,000 people were hired during the pandemic. Of those 3,000 people, how many are still working at Service Canada?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

They all work at Service Canada right now.

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

And yet, Madam Minister, we have learned that only half of them remain.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

I think there may have been a communication problem, because we doubled the number of agents in the call centres during the pandemic. The pandemic is still going on, so call centre staff have to continue to respond to client requests.

It is important to know that the human resource staffing process is being updated and new staff are being hired to accurately meet the needs of Canadians.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Minister. Thank you, Madame Chabot.

Madame Zarrillo, the final question goes to you.

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

Thank you.

In understanding that day care, child care, is part of provincial and territorial jurisdictions, I want to talk about the 250,000 new high-quality child care spaces. I want to get an understanding of whether the government sees these as for-profit spaces or not-for-profit spaces.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

These are not-for-profit spaces.

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

Do you mean all 250,000?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

There is an agreement with Alberta to have a maximum of 22,500 new spaces that would be for profit, but they would be subject to a cost control framework that we are figuring out with Alberta. It cannot create those new spaces until that cost control framework is put into place. There are a small number in New Brunswick as well. However, New Brunswick already has a very robust cost control framework, and the remaining spaces around the country are not for profit.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Madame Zarrillo.

Thank you, Minister and officials. It was an easy meeting for the officials, Minister, as you took all the questions.

Before we adjourn, I want to advise members that Minister Hussen and Minister Khera will appear before the committee on Monday, February 14.

Thank you, Minister. Thank you, officials, for appearing, and thank you, committee members.

The meeting is adjourned.