Thank you.
Yes, to speak to this issue, I really appreciate the opportunity, Mr. Chair. When we were prorogued, I decided to take it upon myself to spend my time trying to connect with people I don't normally get a chance to connect with, primarily high school students. I took the opportunity to travel to many different communities in my riding, visiting with students of high school age. One of the things that shocked me most was how many times the students would bring up youth unemployment as one of their number one concerns.
As I started going through this, I asked them questions, such as how many of them had a part-time job. Generally, only a handful of kids in the class would raise their hands. When I would ask further how many of them wanted a part-time job, almost everyone would put their hands up. When I asked how many of them were actively applying for jobs, I had some students tell me they'd applied for upwards of 200 jobs and hadn't had a phone call back.
This is the real story. This is in Fort McMurray, where we have a relatively low unemployment rate compared to other parts of the country. As I started going through and asking other colleagues, I found that this is a serious issue facing us.
As we're approaching the summer very quickly, I think it is incumbent on us as politicians to make sure that we find out what the cause of this is, because this wasn't something that I was hearing when I was going to high schools last year. This is a new problem that was caused by the previous government, and it's incumbent on us as parliamentarians to get to the bottom of this sooner rather than later so that we can give a future to the next generation.
Thanks, Mr. Chair.