Human Resources Committee on Oct. 18th, 2023

[Kim Thomas]

That's correct. We actually applied for three positions because that's the number of positions we generally request. We got them the previous year, but we weren't even able to get two this year. Given our cost increases, we weren't able to employ three students this year.

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

Did the Canada summer jobs program officers ask you to report on that? Did you tell them you were concerned about the consequences that would have for your organization?

[Kim Thomas]

Yes. I completed the report at the end of the program and forwarded it to Canada summer jobs once we had decided not to hold the camp and cancelled the project.

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

More broadly speaking, what effect do you think that cancelling the day camp had on the parents or the community?

I understand that we're talking about an artistic swimming camp. However, we have to consider the statistics on drowning deaths recorded during the summer. Unfortunately, I think they were even higher in the day camps. As we all know, it's important for young people to learn how to swim.

If you had a recommendation to make for the next program, which will be coming out soon, what would it be?

[Kim Thomas]

The specific circumstances of the applicants must be taken into consideration.

In our case, receiving a subsidy for a single position may mean we have to cancel our day camp essentially because we absolutely need to have at least two employees for safety purposes.

All our coaches are also national-level lifeguards. That's a requirement of their employment with us. Even though a lifeguard is on the pool deck, we require that all our coaches also be lifeguards. Consequently, in our particular case, we absolutely must have at least two employees on site. Even if there are only 10 children to supervise, that would be too many for a single coach. The ratio would be too high. We therefore need two coaches for a group of 10 children.

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

I congratulate you for your commitment.

[Kim Thomas]

Thank you.

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

I understand that this isn't your first experience with the Canada summer jobs program.

As regards the application, what is?

[Michel Cantin]

I haven't been handling the application for that long.

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

I'm talking about the applications for jobs.

[Michel Cantin]

Yes. At first, other people handled the application. We were previously fortunate to have an experienced treasurer, and he was always the one who completed the application. That stopped at one point. I thought that made no sense, so we started over.

This year, there have definitely been some cuts, but at the same time we've been fortunate because, to our great surprise, the Ville de Saint‑Jérôme renovated our 24 tennis courts. So there have been cuts, but there haven't been too many consequences as a result this year. It's next year that we are concerned about. We now have new courts ready to be used next year; so we would definitely like to have a coordinator, someone responsible for funding and maintenance workers responsible for the various facilities.

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

That's what I wanted to ask you. What would the consequences have been if you hadn't had that good fortune?

[Michel Cantin]

At some point, volunteers have to compensate for the lack of resources. So you have to find people who are prepared to get involved and to give a lot of their own time, which they may find exhausting. There are always volunteers who come back, but ever since we've had access to this program, the youth really help us and even teach us a lot of things. It's very important to continue that relationship.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Chabot and Mr. Cantin.

Next, we have Ms. Zarrillo for six minutes.

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

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to start with you, Ms. Thomas, because you talked about so many points in your presentation today.

I know this program has an objective of being a benefit to the employees. It has benefits for students. They are able to gain the skills they need to go out and work. As you said, there are so many other important benefits related to kids being out of school and having opportunities to learn a life skill around swimming, connect to their communities and help out parents who go to work. It is very often the woman who is looking after child care during the summer.

I see this study as being very gendered...this whole Canada summer jobs program. Work itself is gendered. Employment insurance was made based on gender. The labour stats are collected on gender, so this is very interesting to me. We saw in the data, the last time we met, that two-thirds of the jobs that go through the Canada summer jobs program go to women and girls. I take a bit of personal offence when we cut jobs that matter so much to women and girls.

My question is around that. You mentioned that you asked for three jobs and it went down to one. My question is this: How far in advance do you plan your programs, and did you have to spend any marketing money, or money, up front to prepare for those anticipated jobs?

[Kim Thomas]

We actually prepare for our camp every year. It's recurring, so we know that the camp will involve at least three employees. We add others if that proves necessary. We need the Canada summer jobs program so we can recruit at least two of our employees and start up the camp's activities. Apart from that it's the registrations that enable us to offer the camp. We have to plan it, and the planning is done throughout the year. We offer artistic swimming activities all year round. To ensure the camp is well planned, we plan it at the same time as we hold our regular activities.

We definitely need to do promotional work. In the Laurentians, we're fortunate to be cooperating with the Centres d'activités physiques Rivière‑du‑Nord, the CAPRDN. They usually do the advertising for our camps. So we're connected to them. They handle registrations through their website and then forward all amounts received with the registrations. As a result, we don't need to promote the camps.

However, we make extensive use of social media. We're part of a youthful community and we're a young team, so a lot of our advertising is done on social media and in the Laurentian cities that let us use their recreation publications.

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

That's wonderful. Thank you so much.

My next question is around making the program better. Part of this study is to find out where the gaps are and where we can potentially make this program better for the students, but I also see this as a wonderful ability to build community. I'm asking about what additional questions should be asked on the post-survey. I understand there is a mandatory one for employees and it's optional for the students who take on the roles.

What other questions do you think would be important so that the government has a good understanding of the success and gaps of this program?

[Kim Thomas]

As I previously said, you have to know the actual needs of the organization submitting the application and the specific requirements it must meet. In our case, for example, we have to make sure that our employees are national-level lifeguards. It's important to know that we have to pay for any upstream courses that may be necessary. If our coaches don't have the necessary training, we require that they get it before taking up their position, and we reimburse them for those costs after the fact.

So it's important to ask those kinds of questions regarding the necessary training on which the job depends. For us as an employer, it's important that funding cover the specific needs that we have to meet to ensure the connection among the various stages. We need the program so we can have two employees, and our employees must have acquired that specific training.

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

One of the other things I was interested in, when officials were here in the last meeting, was how much of an opportunity there is to educate young people about income tax and about filing their taxes and what kinds of entitlements they are potentially eligible for. Have you ever heard from your employees or the students who work with you that they'd like more information on that, or is that something totally outside this program?

[Kim Thomas]

To be really honest, I must say that we give them a lot of assistance in that area. We use a pay system and we show them where to access their pay statement. At the end of the year, I put all the documents they need to file their tax returns online, and I show them where to access their T4 slips or their Relevé 1, which they need in Quebec.

That support is provided to employees through the program itself, but it could help them. These youth have to learn how to manage this, even though tax withheld is refunded to them in full. They have to learn how to manage their official documents. They need to know where to find their pay statement and the other documents they need to file their tax returns.

Yes, that would be a very good thing to add to the program.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Zarrillo.

Ms. Falk, you have five minutes.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Thank you very much, Chair.

I'd like to thank the witnesses for their contributions to this study of the Canada summer jobs program and for being here today.

I think it's very important that government programs are accessible to those they are designed to serve, that they are fair and that the delivery of the program is also efficient. As employers and applicants with first-hand experience, I greatly appreciate your testimony here today.

Ms. Thomas, I'd like to start with you. I know we heard from Mr. Cantin on his experience with the application process, but I'm wondering, in your experience, because you did say you have applied over several years for Canada summer jobs, if the application process has been simple and easy to follow.

[Kim Thomas]

In actual fact, I worked all year long with computer tools and an online application platform, so it isn't that much of a challenge for me. I have to admit that it isn't the easiest platform to use, so I can understand the trouble that Mr. Cantin encountered. It wasn't a nightmare for me to navigate, but I would say it's not an intuitive interface. Would there be some way to improve it and make it more intuitive for the user? I think so.

At the first step, when users connect, they're directed to a page where they have to find their business and click on it to bring up the form and the decision. I honestly have to say that the visual aspect is somewhat confusing and could be revised. Having said that, I haven't had any difficulty completing an application.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Thank you.

Would you say that the process and the website used plain language, meaning easy-to-understand, simple and straightforward language?

[Kim Thomas]

Yes, it's quite easy to understand, but it could be improved by making it more intuitive, as it were.