Evidence of meeting #38 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was homelessness.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
I will look into the case and come back to you. It sounds concerning to me. It would depend on which department provided what funding, but I'm interested in knowing more about that.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
It was information provided to me through an Order Paper question, so I know the government is already aware of it and has been aware of it for some time.
I'll look forward to your follow-up on that.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
I'm saying that I am not aware of it, as a minister, but I'm happy to come back with more information after I—
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
I understand. It wasn't your department that provided the subsidy. It was Fisheries and Oceans. Given the subject we're discussing—
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
That's why I have no awareness of it. Once we have the ability to dig in, we'll certainly come back to you. It sounds deeply concerning.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Thank you. We'll look forward to that feedback as well.
Youth unemployment is now at 14.3%. It's gone up half a point in a single month.
I'd like to understand what, in the view of the government, success looks like. Do you have a goal or target in terms of where you'd like youth unemployment to be in the months ahead?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
First of all, I want to thank the committee for a very thorough report on youth unemployment and the actions—
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
I have just 15 seconds left, so I want to get a sense of the answer to that question.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Obviously, we are working really closely with this committee and with members of Parliament across the aisle to reduce youth unemployment. One great way to reduce youth unemployment would have been to vote for the spring economic update, which had over two billion dollars' worth of investments to ensure that young people have access to the skilled trades. It's a great career path.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Do you have a target, Minister, for youth unemployment? It's a simple question, and I'm running out of time. Do you have a response to my question? Do you have a target?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
My response is that every time we propose action for youth unemployment, your party votes against it. To me, the question would be, why is it that you're so opposed to supports for young people?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Thank you, Mr. Genuis.
I would just ask members to please respect the interpreters. One person speaking at a time would be most beneficial.
Mr. Villeneuve, you have the floor for six minutes.
Liberal
Louis Villeneuve Liberal Brome—Missisquoi, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, Minister. I'm very pleased to see you here this morning.
I met a number of people during my two-week visit in our ridings, in Brome—Missisquoi. I held “coffee with the MP” type of events, and many people came. Obviously, I heard a lot about affordability. I think it's like that pretty much everywhere. I also heard about job opportunities for our youth. There were parents there who shared their concerns with us.
Our government has a lot of ambitious projects. I'd like you to take the time this morning to explain how the Team Canada Strong initiative will help Canada recruit, train and, above all, retain the skilled workers needed for housing and other projects we're starting.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Thank you for the question.
This is an opportunity not only for young people, but for everyone across the country. These are very good jobs, because they pay very well. They also offer a lot of benefits and, often, a very good pension plan.
It's a really important component not only for building up the opportunity for young people, but for making sure that we have the skilled trades in this country to meet the ambition of the time. In fact, I'm glad to hear you're speaking with your constituents, because I am as well with mine.
I was visiting northern Ontario. As a matter of fact, last week I visited a small area called Marathon, Ontario, which is experiencing a mining boom. One of the things employers were telling me is that they're having a hard time finding skilled trades workers that can work in specific areas of the mining industry, both in building the mines in some cases and, later on, in servicing the mines and servicing the equipment that goes into the mines.
I will note that there are over 50 Red Seal trades, and the variety among the Red Seals it quite large. This program will provide an opportunity to build on some of the work that some provinces and territories are doing to introduce people to the trades to ensure people have an opportunity to feel what it's like to work. These will be paid experiences. It's also meant to support people who are already in the pipeline of skilled trades training. My son is an operating engineer, and I've had the opportunity to see how challenging it can be for someone to get from the first days of their training to a Red Seal certification. We're very excited about the supports in place that will help people through that journey.
Finally, there are many employers who would possibly consider hiring a Red Seal. Small businesses often feel it's unaffordable. There is such an advantage to training your own talent, though, and we'll be recruiting more employers—hopefully particularly small employers, but all sizes of employers—to hire first-year apprentices to make sure that apprentices completing their training have a place to get their hours so that the process of certification is steady and there's hands-on learning with a Red Seal journeyperson. We have to plug these holes, if you will, in the gaps of the journey so that we make sure we graduate more Red Seal professionals.
The numbers are not the greatest. Overall, about 32% of Red Seal workers complete the training and get their Red Seal certification. You can imagine the frustration of young people—or people of any age—who enter the skilled trades and then find that their pathway to certification, which is when you really start to make the money and when you are really able to use your skills in a wide variety of ways.... You can imagine the frustration people feel when they're not able to complete that after making significant investments in their pathways.
We've been holding round tables around the country with unions, employers, technical institutions and training institutions to talk about the plan, and it is landing very well. People feel that we have in fact identified some of the significant gaps. We also have a plan to work with provinces and territories, in particular in the recruiting area, because some provinces are starting co-op credits with colleges, for example, and with high schools to reintroduce trades into high schools, which those of us my age know is part of the challenge we've had.
Over the last two decades or more, there's been a diminishment of the value of a skilled trades job, a skilled trades career. In fact, one tradesperson said—and it's in my notes—that we must work together to restore honour to the skilled trades. These are highly technical and highly science-based trades, with lots of math. Lots of intelligence goes into being a tradesperson, and somehow over the last several decades, society has undermined the value of these workers and their skills. Part of restoring honour is having a prominent program that says, “These are worthy valuable jobs, and you are worthy valuable trainers as Red Seal journeypeople.” These careers are needed by the country. We actually cannot build Canada strong without talented skilled tradespeople.
Thank you for the question.
Liberal
Liberal
Louis Villeneuve Liberal Brome—Missisquoi, QC
Minister, I just want to quickly go back to Canada summer jobs. This program is offering many job opportunities in my riding. It offers up to 100,000 job opportunities across the country.
How will the program help young Canadians gain meaningful work experience—and I insist on the word “meaningful”, because that's what I'm interested in here—and establish real employment relationships with employers?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
It's a great program. Everybody has Canada summer jobs in their riding.
Liberal
Bloc
Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC
Thank you very much, Minister.
I have a lot of topics to discuss with you. Listening to my colleagues, things are obviously moving very quickly.
I, too, have done a lot of field work over the past few weeks.
We know there's been a significant increase in spending for elderly benefits. Despite the budget increase, seniors between the ages of 65 and 74 are still excluded from the full increase in the old age security pension. Why maintain this inequity?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Thank you for the question.
The cost of living is higher for the older seniors. That's why the government is taking this approach regarding pension.
I have supported many people who are aging. I know that the older you get, the more requirements there are to stay at home.
This benefit was introduced during COVID, you may remember. It was very specifically about trying to support older adults to age at home. People need assistive devices. They often need specialized care, and they may need meal delivery and transportation support. This increase was meant to address the very specific costs that older people face as they age and to help support them to stay in place.
If you'll recall, one of the features of COVID was that the deaths were extremely high in long-term care—