Human Resources Committee on Oct. 28th, 2025

[Derek Nighbor]

We're on team Canada here. In saying that, I would remind people that we have more full-time jobs than steel, aluminum and auto combined, and we are across the country—300 communities strong. There's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of concern, and there's a lot of chaos out there. We're going to continue to be on team Canada when we talk about those issues.

I think the best way we can all stay on the same page as team Canada is by having good communication coming back to industry and labour as negotiations continue. We don't need to know everything, but we need to know where we stand so we can stay on team Canada and not give the Americans what they want, which is a divided Canada.

[Colin Reynolds, Conservative, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Is the forestry industry being properly consulted in the trade negotiations?

[Derek Nighbor]

Again, I'll be really direct: We had a tough couple of weeks coming out of the Prime Minister's meeting in the White House. We were very surprised not to be mentioned in the readout. We were very surprised. That was a departure for us. Again, there might be a good strategic reason for that, but for two weeks, there was no communication.

My advice, again, staying on team Canada, is that we want to work with the government on solutions. We're reasonable people. We've never had this industry more united from coast to coast. We've never had greater alignment between industry and organized labour on an issue, so let's work together. Let's keep the lines of communication open.

[Colin Reynolds, Conservative, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Okay. Thank you.

My next question is for Mr. Mahdy.

Do you find that youth expectations exceed the reality of the job market?

[Sharif Mahdy]

Thank you for the question.

I don't think youth expectations exceed the reality of the job markets. I think young people are really well aware of how massively the economy is changing right now. We're working with young people, as young as people in grade 9, who are talking to us about concerns over tariffs and affordability. In the past year or two, the expectations have adjusted to meet the reality of where we're at with the economy right now.

[Colin Reynolds, Conservative, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Okay. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to cede the rest of my time to my colleague Laila Goodridge.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to move a motion to resume debate on the motion I moved on Thursday, October 23, 2025, which reads as follows:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the Auditor General of Canada be invited to appear before the committee for two hours to speak and answer questions on the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care System report by November 28, 2025.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Ms. Koutrakis, did you have your hand up?

[An hon. member]

No, this is a dilatory motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

We have a motion to resume debate. Does the committee agree to resume debate on the motion? If that is agreed, then I would go to Ms. Koutrakis.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 5; nays 4 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

The committee has agreed to resume debate in the time left.

Witnesses, this is a procedure that is allowed during a committee. I need to deal with this item in the time left.

I am going to Ms. Koutrakis on the motion.

[Annie Koutrakis, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just wanted to remind our colleagues that the Liberals will be voting no on this motion. The reason is that this is most likely an issue that is going to be discussed at the public accounts committee as well. I don't have that on good authority, but my experience tells me that it will likely be the public accounts committee that will be inviting the Auditor General to its committee.

We spent quite a bit of time in our previous meetings putting together a calendar that would have us start working on the next study, which is very important, and that is the study that was put forth by our good colleague Madame Gill. I'm just asking the committee to be mindful of the calendar and of the important work we're doing as a committee to make sure that we are not adding extra dates prolonging this committee's studies, which are so important.

I'm appealing to committee members to think about this. Maybe this is something we can allow the other committee to look at. Any member at this committee who wishes to question the Auditor General—and we all know the procedures—can always request to be a substitute on that committee when the Auditor General appears, and they can ask questions at that committee at that time. We could then proceed with the calendar, which we all so vigorously discussed in previous committee meetings and came to an agreement on, and continue the studies that we agreed to.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Koutrakis.

Before we continue with this, the witnesses can leave. We're over the timeline. We have a few more moments of the committee's time, but it's unlikely that we'll get back to the witnesses. I would like to thank you for appearing before the committee with your testimony. Feel free to leave at will.

With that, I have Ms. Goodridge and then Mr. Joseph.

Ms. Goodridge.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It is incredibly important that we have the Auditor General come. Last week, a report came out on the state of the early child care spaces that demonstrated that the government wasn't meeting the commitments it made or its own timelines.

It's incumbent on us.... I appreciate that the Liberal members have shared their concerns about the disruption of the calendar. I will point out that this is a very modest request for one meeting. This is not something that is going to blow up the calendar, as the Liberals are suggesting. This is a multi-billion dollar project that was taken on and off-loaded onto the provinces and territories. We are four years in and it has taken four years to get some of the basic reporting data to come in. The reporting data is inconsistent. We heard from the Auditor General when she was at the public accounts committee last week that not every province is even tallying the information. We don't know the state of this.

As the member opposite stated, we don't have clarity that this is going to be studied at another committee. She is going off assumptions. It might happen, but we have the authority and we are charged by the taxpayers of Canada and the voters who sent us here to take care of taxpayer dollars. This is a $35-billion project, and I believe a lot of parents expect us to have results on this. It is incumbent on us to do this.

I would ask that we suspend for two or three minutes, Mr. Chair, so we can have some discussions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

I will get to that.

Before we suspend, I want to remind committee members that the committee, in business, spent a good bit of time on and arrived at a unanimous decision on our calendar, but the committee makes decisions as it moves forward. The calendar was populated by a unanimous decision. I would just ask that you take that into consideration while recognizing that the committee, by unanimity or majority, can choose its direction.

I'm going to suspend for four minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

The committee has resumed.

I am going to return to Ms. Goodridge because that's where I was when I suspended. Then Mr. Genuis had his hand up.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Is that it? Okay.

Mr. Genuis, you're next, and then I believe Madame Gill might have had her hand up.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Chair, I have just two quick observations on the calendar.

I noticed that we had pencilled in budget day as a likely cancelled meeting.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

No.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Is that not likely to be cancelled anymore?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

No, we're in the morning. It was never.... I'm sorry; that's just for clarification.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

There was a previous draft of the calendar, though, that was—

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

No, we're in the morning slot and it was not my intention to cancel.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

I think we do then have one flex meeting—just to flag that. We can minimize disruption to the calendar by using that. It sounds like that was your intention anyway.

My colleague's motion referenced the end of November. I think we can adjust that if we need to. I do notice that we have a lot of ministers scheduled in November, and we certainly don't want to disrupt those. We would have November 4 potentially available to us to help create some additional space if members want to do it. That's not to prejudge the conclusion, but just in terms of the impact on the calendar, we do have that space available.