Human Resources Committee on Oct. 23rd, 2023

[Nicole Larocque]

I think I'm okay. Thank you, Kevin.

A lot of the challenges that we experience are, as I said, with the timing of when we receive that approval and then the length of time it takes us to go through the recruitment process here at Kerry's Place. Normally, most of the time, we'll get an approval on, say, a Friday afternoon, and the job's effective date is the following Monday. We then have to get on board with our own recruitment processes at that time, get the job posting up and do all that stuff on our end. Meanwhile, the job has already been posted on the job bank at that time, and we're already starting to receive inquiries from candidates for a position that we haven't even posted on our own internal sites at that point.

That's where we run into some challenges with the timelines.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Could you speak to any other challenges that you have in finding youth to fill the positions? Have you received sufficient applications? Are the skill sets that you're looking for reflected in the applications that you are seeking?

[Nicole Larocque]

Yes. For the most part, I would say that the candidate pool is small. I do believe that a lot of the things we have stated, such as our challenges with being able to offer a decent wage on top of the minimum wage, can pose a big challenge for us. Then, again, there are some of those timing issues.

I think there is still this misconception that this program is for students, but it's for youth. Depending, again, on when we get those approvals, we're missing the window of when college or university graduates might be ending school and looking for that first “foot in the door” opportunity. When we get some of the older youth who are well out of school, I think a lot of the jobs are deemed a little bit more entry-level, and then we're not offering wages that are competitive enough to match the skill set that they are bringing to the job. I think that definitely poses a challenge for us.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

You mentioned that you would like to see a broader audience of job seekers and more flexible candidates for the organization. Could you expand on that?

[Nicole Larocque]

Yes. When we had the flexibilities in place during COVID—again, because it's not just a program for students—we were able to broaden the type of candidate we were bringing in. Even if it was more student-based, we were able to offer part-time opportunities to people who might have been doing courses over the summertime or people who were finishing up school in August. They were able to start in September, and we had those longer durations of placements available. We were approved for lengthier placement opportunities, which, again, was more appealing for some of those older youth in the higher twenties and up to the age of 30.

It is very challenging to find people who can come in just for an eight-week contract without it being specifically focused on a student population.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

You mentioned some concerns about constraints in terms of the timelines, etc.

Would you be able to work with a flexibility where you are approved for so many dollars or so many hours? That could be one student full time for 16 weeks, two students part time for eight weeks, or four students part time. Is that something you could manage inside your organization? Could you be within the overall parameters of the program, but with the flexibility to manage it more effectively to meet your own needs, as opposed to meeting the needs of the organization providing the funding?

[Nicole Larocque]

It's an interesting suggestion. I think it would depend. I think a lot of what you're suggesting would change the application process.

Right now, as I mentioned, we have locations across Ontario. I'm often gathering all the interested applicants and placing them into constituencies. It could be challenging, but I think it could work. It's so hard, because we usually have 10 to 12 constituencies that we're applying for at any given time.

We have some programs specific to summer—

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Van Bynen.

Ms. Chabot, you have the floor for six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the witnesses for being with us today and coming to tell us about their experience with the Canada Summer Jobs program.

Mr. Creamer, as I understand it, your organization operates primarily in rural areas, which poses certain challenges with respect to the program, given the reality of rural areas.

If you didn't have access to the Canada Summer Jobs program, would this affect your organization and the projects it puts forward?

[Paul Creamer]

I apologize. I'm trying to figure out how to get the interpretation working.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

If you go to the bottom of your Surface, there should be an interpretation icon. Click on it and choose the language of your choice. It's the symbol of the globe.

[Paul Creamer]

Now I have it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Okay.

Madame Chabot, do you want to repeat your question?

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

I'll repeat it, Mr. Chair, but I'd like to keep my entire speaking time of six minutes, please.

Mr. Creamer, if you didn't have access to the Canada Summer Jobs program, what would be the consequences for your organization and for the projects you put forward, as well as for young people and your community?

[Paul Creamer]

Thank you for your question.

I think the impact would be that we wouldn't be able to give the younger people in our community some opportunities. I think there are benefits to this program for both parties involved—the organization and the participants. It benefits us, because we need additional support. We have a lot of responsibilities with limited resources. Any additional help we can get.... This program allows us to complete special projects and one-off things that we typically can't get to with our traditional, normal resources.

Then, on the other side, there aren't a lot of opportunities in our area, necessarily, for local employment for students. This program gives some opportunity to those individuals.

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

Thank you.

To provide these opportunities in connection with your special projects, is Canada Summer Jobs funding sufficient? Is it sufficient to fill enough positions and allocate enough hours of work to young people? We know that demand is currently higher than ever.

[Paul Creamer]

The short answer is no. The longer answer is.... When you look at the number of applications received from organizations, not just us, they're going to far outweigh the resources available. That goes to show the demand. Granted, any time there's “free money” on the table, you're going to get lots of applications, so I understand the scoring and criteria process to weed out, rank and evaluate to make sure the money is going where it needs to go.

The short answer is no. I don't believe there are enough resources, and we could always use more.

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

Thank you very much.

My next question is for Ms. Larocque or Mr. Spafford.

I congratulate you on your commitment. Our communities are in dire need of organizations like yours that support people with autism spectrum disorders.

Ms. Larocque, you have made several recommendations regarding the flexibility of the plan and the time frames for approval. This is well noted, and I thank you for it.

You said that the duration of the program provides for a period of employment that can vary from 10 to 16 weeks. When your organization submitted applications, you were granted only eight weeks, whereas your projects required a greater number of weeks.

What impact does this have on projects and what are the consequences for service providers and young people?

[Nicole Larocque]

It definitely impacts our ability to recruit. Even if we could offer a bit more on top of the minimum wage, I don't think a lot of people are interested in eight-week contracts. As I mentioned, it doesn't give them the chance to really get involved with Kerry's Place at the level we would hope they would be able to in such a short period of time.

With some of the flexibilities, we were able to offer longer terms, which was a valuable opportunity not just for us but for the employee, as well. We were able to keep a few people during COVID, which gave us more time to work with those individuals and help them build their skills in that longer period of time. I do feel it impacts overall the quantity and quality of candidates we get when we're posting for an eight-week contract.

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

Thank you, Ms. Larocque.

Last year's Canada Summer Jobs program, compared to the previous year's program in a pandemic context, was cut, for the majority of our ridings, by 30% of its budget. That's quite a lot, considering the increased number of requests. There are also demographic and inflation-related issues. Budget cuts have resulted in a reduction in the number of hours allocated to each of the positions.

In the current context, do you believe that funding for the Canada Summer Jobs program should be increased to reflect the increased number of applications?

[Nicole Larocque]

Yes, I do believe it should be increased. Again, if we can offer longer durations, we would have a better opportunity of getting people in the door.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Chabot.

Next, we have Ms. Zarrillo, for six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you so much to the witnesses today.

I'm going to direct my questions first to Ms. Larocque.

Ms. Larocque, the Canada summer jobs program, which you talked about, does have a focus on youth who are being employed. It's so wonderful to hear how that engagement often carries on after the summer jobs. I believe that's one of the objectives. One of the objectives of a quality job from this program is for the employee to remain beyond the period of the Canada summer jobs agreement.

There are a couple of things I wanted to ask you about. You mentioned in your opening statement about having time to do onboarding. Could you tell us a bit about how important it is to have onboarding time? On the back end of the job, is there more education that could be done around taxes, for example, how to file taxes and what entitlements some of your employees would have in terms of tax deductions or tax credits?

[Nicole Larocque]

In terms of onboarding, I think we do have a pretty rigorous onboarding process here at Kerry's Place. We want to make sure that when people are coming in the door we have the opportunity to give them the proper training, not just about the job that they're employed for, but also about an overall understanding of Kerry's Place in general. That includes review of our policies and a lot of different mandatory training. We can spend a good week just onboarding someone and getting them introduced to the organization, which, again, plays into the.... When we're getting only eight weeks, we lose a bit of time up front with that person.

I'm sorry. Was the second question about taxes?

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

Part of the objective of the summer jobs grants is to transition young people into the workforce, into the labour force. I'm aware of a number of young people who don't understand the entitlements they have on income tax. For example, with the disability tax credit, let's say, they don't know they're able to apply for it. I'm just wondering if you have any insight around tax filing for your employees when they've done their terms.