Thank you. I'm very pleased to be here.
We support the Canada summer jobs program's goal of creating quality summer work experiences for young people aged 15 to 30. As the prevalence rate of autism continues to rise, the need for services and supports continues to increase. In that regard, the Canada summer jobs program has been a benefit to Kerry's Place, enabling us to scale our capacity where needed to support individuals with autism and their families.
Overall, the program is functioning well and has allowed us the opportunity to bring in additional support at a minimal cost to the employer. Having utilized this program over the past 10 years, we recognize that welcome improvements have been introduced. We believe there is an opportunity to further enhance the program to meet the needs of candidates and organizations, and we have five observations that we would like to share today.
The first is the program's flexibility. The flexible parameters introduced during COVID—such as extended recruitment windows, longer placement durations and enabling part-time hours—were cancelled after COVID. The flexibility offered by these temporary parameters made the Canada summer jobs program more appealing to candidates and organizations, and made recruiting easier.
The second is the application process. The process to apply for funding is based on a constituency, making it a time-consuming process for community organizations with multiple locations, such as Kerry's Place, to apply.
The third is the job term lengths. Terms can be as long as 16 weeks, but Kerry's Place is typically approved for the eight- to 10-week program, even though we've requested 16 weeks and we meet all of the program application deadlines. The longer terms can benefit candidates, who often prefer to work longer, and organizations that require more support. The shorter terms make it a challenge to onboard individuals and gain momentum in the few short weeks they're employed with us.
The fourth is the timing of approvals. Frequently, the position approvals from Service Canada come with only a few days' notice, and opportunities are immediately added to the job bank—often without the necessary job information. This causes confusion among candidates and organizations that may not be instantly prepared. Given the time it takes to recruit, last-minute approvals mean that we miss the first one to two weeks of the term, potentially losing candidates as well as funding.
The last is wages and retaining youth. Funding covers minimum wage, and many agencies will use their own funds to top up the wages in an effort to provide more equitable opportunities for candidates. Due to Kerry's Place being a non-profit organization, we often don't have any additional budgeted funds to be able to offer attractive top-ups to the minimum wage.
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