Evidence of meeting #84 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was students.
A video is available from Parliament.
5:40 p.m.
Founding Director, Youth Association for Academics, Athletics, and Character Education
Yes, 100%.
5:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Ferreri Conservative Peterborough—Kawartha, ON
What would you say if I told you that, when we asked Stats Canada—the government that hands out this money—about this program, they don't even measure it? Would you agree that measuring—having the tools for measurements of success—is critical?
That's how you quantify the success of something. Obviously, your program has done that and done it very well.
5:40 p.m.
Founding Director, Youth Association for Academics, Athletics, and Character Education
Definitely.
Ironically, I met with some professors last week at York: Joseph Mensah and one of my colleagues, Christopher Williams. They wrote a book about their research called “Boomerang Ethics”. They were doing consultation for Stats Canada and asking them some of these pointed questions. They don't track or measure.
The luxury of having a researcher in-house who documents and tracks everything—sometimes it's a bit much—means that we can always speak quantitatively to what's taking place and to the efficacy of our program.
5:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Ferreri Conservative Peterborough—Kawartha, ON
I commend you for doing that.
I think when you're using taxpayers' money.... Do you not think it would be critical for the government to do what you're doing? Should they be held accountable on their end to ensure the success of this program?
5:40 p.m.
Founding Director, Youth Association for Academics, Athletics, and Character Education
Definitely, because you have agencies that.... There always has to be an accountability matrix in place for anything you do. If you run a program, there has to be an accountability matrix. If you're taking taxpayers' money, you have to demonstrate efficacy. You have to prove what you're doing. You have to demonstrate what you're doing.
We would love to help with that research aspect. We'd love to put that matrix in place for Canada summer jobs. We have a template in place that we use in-house at YAAACE, and we'd love to share.
5:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Ferreri Conservative Peterborough—Kawartha, ON
I'm very impressed with what you're offering and what you're doing. You're definitely on the upstream end of changing the trajectory of those at most risk. Thank you for what you do.
We're hearing you too, Christopher. It's pretty powerful to hear from a student who's done the program.
I want to ask Brent one final question, but I don't know how much time I have left here.
5:40 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Ferreri Conservative Peterborough—Kawartha, ON
Brent, you're from the Big Brothers Big Sisters club, which is also amazing. One thing you touched on was a longer duration of grants. One thing we've heard repeatedly from witnesses is that they're not hearing back in time. There's not enough runway to get the people employed. As a mom, I know my kids struggle. They don't have those social skills. They're behind because of COVID. They're afraid to apply for jobs.
How are you finding the people who are applying? Are you getting a high number of applicants? Do you think that, if they gave you answers earlier—on how much funding you got—it would be helpful in your securing of quality talent?
5:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peterborough
Thank you for the question.
It's similar to Tracey's response earlier. Finding talent early is critical, because often—especially when they're keen—they try to source those opportunities early.
One thing we find, too, is that we're having to think through whether we put an asterisk on our job posting that says, “if the funding is available”. It's pretty tough. We don't like to put them in that position, and we don't like to be in that position, either.
It's very important that we hear early, so we can provide.... For example, some of the kids—
5:45 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Ferreri Conservative Peterborough—Kawartha, ON
I'm sorry, Brent.
What date would you like—on the record, just for reference? What would be the ideal date to hear back by?
5:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peterborough
I think Tracey mentioned that as early as April 15 is helpful. The students are already finding opportunities by then, but that's at least a positive direction.
5:45 p.m.
Liberal
5:45 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
Thank you, Chair.
Good afternoon to my colleagues.
Thank you to our witnesses for coming in. I have just a few points for clarification.
My great colleague MP Chabot made a comment that the program was drastically cut. I would actually disagree with that. I don't think it was drastically cut at all. We returned the program to prepandemic levels. We increased the program during the pandemic to accommodate employers and students who needed help, and then we brought it back to prepandemic levels, which, for the record, is double what the previous Conservative government offered to students.
It's an amazing, wonderful program. We've hired just short of 3,000 students in my riding of Saint John—Rothesay and put $9 million into our economy through students.
I'm curious to hear from all three of you. I'd ask each of you to share how many students you hire and what percentage the Canada summer jobs program is of that number. Do you also have a provincial program through which you hire students?
Go ahead, Mr. Jones.
5:45 p.m.
Founding Director, Youth Association for Academics, Athletics, and Character Education
Last summer, I think we hired somewhere around 50 youth, and 26 of those were through Canada summer jobs. We had some through the TDSB focus on youth initiative and the TCDSB initiative, which is a similar spinoff of focus on youth.
I would say a little over half of the kids we hire are usually through Canada summer jobs.
5:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peterborough
We have hired anywhere from—we're small—one to three students while I've been the executive director. All of the funding comes from Canada summer jobs.
5:45 p.m.
General Manager, Peterborough Musicfest
We hire 10, and four are covered by Canada summer jobs. That's 40%. I've seen an increase in funding over my decade here. I'm very appreciative that, postpandemic, it came back, just like it did in 2019, so thank you.
5:45 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
Thank you.
Mr. Jones, was your experience through the portal a good experience? Was it cumbersome when you actually had to go through the process of applying?
5:45 p.m.
Founding Director, Youth Association for Academics, Athletics, and Character Education
My admin team is tasked with that, and I've had no complaints. There's a level of proficiency because they've done it over a period of time. They'd be best suited to answer that, but I haven't heard any complaints.
5:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peterborough
It's similar, because it's been done before. I think the standardization of it seems to be fairly straightforward.
Thank you.
