Human Resources Committee on Feb. 12th, 2026

[Ayla Azad]

I myself studied abroad. I'm a graduate from Palmer College in the U.S.

A little over 30% of our members are trained overseas, primarily in the United States, which is where the majority of the chiropractic programs are located, and there are some international ones. In Bournemouth, England, for example, there's a very well-respected program, and there are some in New Zealand and Australia.

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

Then 30% of your current membership has studied outside of Canada.

[Ayla Azad]

Yes.

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

Of those, could you give a guess as to how many of those were Canadians who were forced to go abroad to study?

[Ayla Azad]

These are members of the Canadian Chiropractic Association. Thirty per cent of them left, studied, came back and are now our members.

It's impossible for CMCC and UQTR to meet the needs. They can increase enrolment, sure, but it's only two programs. It's just impossible for an entire nation to be serviced with two institutions.

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

I appreciate that.

I'm going to change course a little.

Mr. Stephenson, I know you and I have had an opportunity to meet before, and your program and your organization do some really wonderful work-integrated learning. I know I benefited as a university student from doing summer jobs in large organizations. That taught me a lot more than just the classroom studies. I actually learned a lot about how bureaucracies sometimes just don't work.

I was wondering if you could explain how your program delivers for students' needs today and how they actually get access to long-term jobs.

[Dana Stephenson]

When most people think about work-integrated learning, they typically think of traditional internships and co-op programs or apprenticeship programs, which are absolutely fantastic. The research shows over and over again that there's a huge ROI, or return on the investment in these programs, and student participation in these programs leads to higher wages, higher employment outcomes, better job satisfaction, etc.

Although we work abroad as well, and it's a global challenge, the major challenge we see in Canada is that there's a supply and demand problem. There is no shortage of demand from students looking for high-quality, high-impact work-integrated learning experiences, but there's just not enough supply. Not enough of our employers, especially small and medium-sized businesses, are participating in these programs. They face an enormous number of barriers. They don't have the infrastructure, they don't have the time, and, as Rob mentioned, they don't have the HR personnel.

A program like ours acts as an intermediary. With our Level Up and FuturePath programs, we actually act as the payer of record. These are short, flexible, project-based experiences. They're typically about 60 hours. They can range from 20 hours to upwards of 420. They're typically done asynchronously, so it breaks down geographical barriers. Students can participate either individually or in groups. They can fit it around other jobs. They can fit it around their need to continue paying for their education. They can fit it around other intense workloads.

The key piece here is that we're removing friction for students to participate. We're increasing the supply by getting small businesses and micro-businesses to participate when they wouldn't otherwise have participated. We act as the payer of record. We pay the students on behalf of the employers. The Government of Canada provides funding, which we use to subsidize the wages to encourage more employers to participate, and we de-risk it for them. We pay the students directly, and we cover all of the paperwork.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Stephenson.

Thank you, Ms. Goodridge.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

We'll move to Ms. Fancy for six minutes.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you, everybody, for coming today. It's such a privilege to be able to discuss these topics and help inform policy and practice.

As with Riipen's Mr. Stephenson, Mr. Henderson and Dr. Azad, as a former educator, it's been my lifelong mission to help get those kiddos employed. My first degree was pre-medical biology, and I chose to teach math and science instead of practising. The connection of the flourishing biomedical field right now suggests that we need these pathway programs for our youth to get them interested, and not only interested but also integrated into these larger-scale careers.

My first question today is for Mr. Stephenson. It's great seeing you again.

I have a question related to experience.

In Riipen's experience and what you've been able to pull off since 2017—you mentioned 30,000 employers and running over 300,000 youth through your programs—how does reducing financial pressure on students help them to participate in work-integrated learning opportunities?

[Dana Stephenson]

Many students have to hold down a job while going to post-secondary education that doesn't necessarily relate to their careers. It's great experience nonetheless, but it's not necessarily relevant to what their actual career interests are. It's not necessarily relevant to building the skills and the professional connections in the sector or the area of interest to them.

That can be a huge barrier for them, so reducing financial pressure and offering opportunities to engage in paid work-integrated learning experiences contribute to ensuring that students get the experience and the professional connections they need and deserve to land meaningful employment after graduation.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

That's wonderful. Thank you very much.

I went through the federal work experience program as a kid coming from a rural remote community, and I probably wouldn't have been able to get the jobs that I did during school and in the summers when I was home if I hadn't had access to programs like that.

My second question is also for Mr. Stephenson.

How do these experiences with those co-op or Level Up programs improve the completion rates and ease the transition from school to work?

[Dana Stephenson]

There's broad evidence out there that these high-impact practices lead to higher completion rates, because students are actually connecting their learning to the real world. They can see how their learning will help prepare them for future roles that they're interested in.

It also helps them with career clarity. Often, getting these experiences to students earlier on can help them identify which pathway aligns more with their interests, their skills and their motivation, which encourages, of course, a completion rate.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, what we're trying to solve for here is signalling. Employers struggle today to identify talent and to have confidence that the talent has the skills and experience and is a good cultural fit for paying roles in the organization. When students graduate with a portfolio of work experiences—in our world, these are project-based experiences, but they could be full-time experiences as well—it gives the employer a lot of confidence that they have skills that have been verified and validated by employers, not just the academic institution they're enrolled in, and that they've tried out multiple different industries and types and sizes of organizations, and they have a lot of confidence in articulating why their skills and their experience would be a good fit for that organization.

That sends a very strong, positive signal that employers can trust, and it brings more employers to the table to solve that supply-and-demand challenge by getting more employers to invest in early career talent and early career training.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

That's wonderful. Thank you very much, Mr. Stephenson.

Mr. Henderson, I'm seeing you nodding in response to a lot of what Mr. Stephenson has said. I don't know, Mr. Stephenson, if you could see that while you were talking, but there's a lot of recognition of similarities between you and Mr. Henderson today.

Mr. Henderson, how do you think ensuring student financial assistance supports high-quality, accountable training to help employers access the skills and talent they need?

[Robert Henderson]

Specifically in Canada's bioeconomy, we're probably the most educated vertical industry there is. In fact, a degree or a college certificate is an entry-level position to get into the industry. For students, as I think Dana eloquently stated, science itself, STEM, is a difficult discipline. At the same time, in order to be able to get a high enough GPA and to be able to continue to thrive, it's very difficult for students in a non-industry position to gain money to do that. For them to be able to do that within the industry is really pivotal. It actually shortens the time it takes for them to enter the industry, because they're getting that absolutely important industry experience that small and medium-sized enterprise have. A lot of times, when we're talking about science organizations, we think about labs, but these are businesses. They do marketing, they do sales, they do HR and everything else. While our colleges and universities are second to none in the world in teaching the theory of science, they sometimes struggle with the business of science, and this is so pivotal to them. Work-integrated learning, and the student work placement program in particular, bridges two gaps. Number one, it provides them the financial—

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Henderson. You're well over the time.

[Robert Henderson]

There we go. I'll do the second one, then.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

You can continue on with that at another time.

Ms. Fancy.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

If you have other things to say, please don't hesitate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

That's fine.

We're now moving to Madame Larouche.

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

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank the witnesses for joining us.

Good morning, Mr. Stephenson and Mr. Henderson.

Ms. Azad, we meet again. I remember meeting with you to talk about the challenges specific to your profession. At the time, I told you that my family regularly uses these treatments for all kinds of health issues. We know that they can be excellent, both as a preventive measure and to treat a variety of minor health issues.

You opened a door when you answered one of my Conservative colleagues' questions. You said that 30% of your members were trained in the United States, New Zealand and Australia. I would like to explore this a bit further and find out why these students choose these places in particular. What good practices should be included in our recommendations? Why do they go there? What can we learn from this?

[Ayla Azad]

Thank you very much for the question. It's nice to see you again.

I would say, again, there are only two programs here in Canada, so there are a limited number of seats for these students. They have to go overseas. As I said, I went overseas to get my degree but am now fully immersed in the chiropractic community here in Canada.

From a financial perspective, it's very costly to get a chiropractic degree. These assistance programs are essential for our students to be able to not only get the degree but then also start practices in communities and be able to live and pay back all of this financial assistance. It sometimes can be the difference between someone being able to access the chiropractic program or not.

If we don't have enough chiropractors to service the needs.... The burden of musculoskeletal conditions in this country is huge. It's costing the economy billions of dollars. We need more professionals who can manage the disability that's coming with an aging population. We need more rehabilitation specialists and experts, and chiropractors can certainly help fill that need.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Yet studying abroad isn't free.

I would like to ask you another quick question. If you could answer it in 30 seconds, that would be good.

You said that there were only two programs, including one at the Université du Québec à Trois‑Rivières. How can the federal government support the training program, which poses a challenge for you, while also respecting Quebec's jurisdiction, particularly in the area of education?

[Ayla Azad]

Well, firstly we need to make sure that the financial assistance remains, as well as the student loan forgiveness program. We were excluded as a profession from the student loan forgiveness program. That's a challenge for us. We want to encourage more students to go into rural and remote communities. As I said, there is a need.

Therefore, we need to bookend this financial assistance in the beginning, so that they can get the required training, and then offer the student loan forgiveness so they can come back and service communities here in Canada.