Evidence of meeting #51 for Status of Women in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was young.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director General, Labour Market Integration, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
The apprenticeship grants were launched initially in 2007, so there's been over 500,000 apprenticeship grants.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
But we increased it with the Red Seal. We did more. We started the apprenticeship grants in 2007 and we increased it last year in economic action plan 2014, with—
Director General, Labour Market Integration, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
The Canada apprentice loan....
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
—okay, the loan. So you were referring to the grant program that we started in 2007, and the 500,000 young people who have taken advantage of that? That's an outstanding accomplishment. I'm so glad.
Is there more required? Do we need to do more of that for young people?
Director General, Labour Market Integration, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
That was certainly the thinking behind the launch of the Canada apprentice loan. It ensured that there was additional funding available so that when individuals, at those peak times, were leaving the workplace to go on their technical training as apprentices and returning to the college system for that 8 to 10 weeks each year they would have that financial flexibility.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
That there were 500,000 young people helped through that blows my mind. That's wonderful, just wonderful. Hopefully, this is going to change, the way the chartered accountancy profession changed.
Madam Savoie, you mentioned in the YMCA-YWCA program that was in Montreal there was an opportunity to share with families. What was that program?
Senior Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada
That one was where they were working with guidance counsellors.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
If we want to make an impact working with guidance counsellors—and all of us think our riding is the most important; it doesn't matter which side of the House you're on, you feel that—is part of your process at Status of Women to share the accomplishments of that one project, that YMCA-YWCA project that's based in Montreal, with all of the YMCAs and YWCAs across Canada? That would actually be helpful and use dollars that we've already invested, I think, wisely, but we should be getting more bang for the buck on that. Can we do that?
Senior Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada
Our approach.... That project is just beginning, so as it unfolds over the next—
Conservative
Senior Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada
—three years, what will happen is it's part of a cluster of projects addressing the same issue. The best practices will be assessed.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
What's our best practice for sharing those best practices when we figure them out? It's more economical if everybody doesn't have to learn how to walk.
Senior Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada
I totally agree. One of the things we're trying to develop is a knowledge dissemination strategy now that we have these clusters—
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Can you get that information on knowledge dissemination back to this committee on that particular issue and on that particular project?
Senior Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada
Sure.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
My colleagues have all remarked that there is a dearth of guidance counsellors who are actually and actively encouraging young women who are capable to engage in the less traditional fields. That would be very helpful, because then we can save the money on doing it again, and have it make sense.
I would also like some stats.
CIC, thank you so much for being here today.
I want you to know that when I was with Susan Truppe, actually we found out that women welders are more precise and more capable and more accurate. Their accuracy is significant. I'm happy to report...we didn't get 24-hour service, but it was, I believe, 10 days. There was a young woman who is a welder who got the express entry.
Again, could we get some information on the successes of express entry? I think this is a program that really is making a difference and it's helping businesses.
It's very important in terms of creating jobs and growing the economy.
NDP
The Chair NDP Hélène LeBlanc
Thank you, Ms. Bateman.
I'm going to let Mr. Graham answer that quickly.
Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
If I may, Madam Chair, I will answer that.
Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We would be delighted to provide stats.
It's a relatively new system. It's only been operating since January 1, but what we know so far we'd be happy to share.
NDP
The Chair NDP Hélène LeBlanc
Excellent. I love those answers.
Thank you very much, Ms. Welbourne.
Ms. Freeman, you have the floor for seven minutes.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
I've discovered this report done by the status of women committee in 2010 actually. It was in the third session of the 40th Parliament. It's called “Building the Pipeline: Increasing the Participation of Women in Non-Traditional Occupations”.
Who can I speak to about this? Are we aware of this report generally across departments?
I think I see Madam Savoie is...generally as well. I don't know if it's something that I can direct my questions to. Is there anyone else?
We'll talk about this specifically.
Some of the recommendations in here are very interesting around implementing.... I'll just read out the first one, which is: “The Committee recommends that all federal government publicity relating to training and jobs undergo a gender-based analysis on an ongoing basis to ensure that women are portrayed in a wide range of non-traditional jobs.”
Is that something that's been implemented?
Senior Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada
You will note that the vast majority of those recommendations fall within the mandate of ESDC, so I have to pass the buck, I'm sorry.
Director General, Labour Market Integration, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
There's been a considerable amount of advertising and outreach related to some of the initiatives around apprenticeship training. Certainly, if you look at the five advertising campaigns that have been run over the past few years, we have made a particular effort to focus on portraying women in non-traditional trades.
As you may recall, last year in the 2014 campaign, we had a testimonial from Valerie who was an apprentice from the Toronto area, now actually a journeyperson working for the Toronto District School Board as a HVAC journeyperson. I would say as well, if you take a look at the ESDC website, we've done a number of YouTube testimonials with young women who are in non-traditional trades as journeypersons as well. For example, on the website we have videos of a woman who is a bricklayer and another who is an automotive service technician. There's been an awful lot of focus on that in the last few years in the department.