Mr. Speaker, I am pleased, as official opposition critic for youth and training, to talk about the motion introduced by my colleague for Mercier and dealing with the Department of Human Resources Development estimates, more particularly with employment services.
The first thing I would like to say is that grants and contributions under the employment and insurance program are presented in a misleading manner. Looking at pages 12.6 and 12.7 of the main estimates, you might think that grants and contributions to the program have increased from $1,281,552,000 in 1994-1995 to $1,354,381,000 in 1995-1996.
However, the total of grants and contributions for 1995-1996 includes grants to individuals under the Atlantic groundfish strategy, as well as contributions to provincial governments for the older worker adjustment program which were not there previously. The same amount for 1994-1995 does not include these grants and contributions and that explains the increase from one year to the next.
If you take these two items in consideration for both years, the total of grants and contributions decreases from $1,614,444,000 in 1994-1995 to $1,354,381,000 in 1995-1996. It is therefore a decrease of $260 million or about 16 per cent. The most important cuts are in the employment programs and in the Atlantic groundfish strategy.
We are particularly interested in the cuts in the employment programs. As the auditor general has often said, the departmental expenditure plans are more a way of hiding things than of informing people. The Department of Human Resources Development is more guilty than others in that regard, since it is presenting the information in a confusing and incomplete way.
When the time comes to collect taxes, the federal government is very clear. But when it has to explain what it does with the money, all of a sudden, everything is obscure.
Table 6, on page 2-24, shows that Quebec is not receiving enough of the employment programs' funds. According to these statistics, Quebec gets, in fact, 21 per cent of the federal funds in that field, when it accounts for 24 per cent of the Canadian population.
The Department's estimated manpower training spending, funded by the unemployment insurance fund, should reach about $1.9 billion in 1995, $521 million of which is for Quebec, which represents, in this case, a little more than its share of the Canadian population, that is 27.4 per cent of the total spending.
Since, in 1995, the regular benefits in Quebec cost $3.4 billion out of a total for Canada of $10.3 billion, which amounts to 33 per cent of the total, Quebec stands to lose $113 million.
Moreover, the federal government perpetuates duplication and overlap by putting in place new programs, such as the youth service corps and the young trainee program. It shows clearly that Ottawa does not want to get out of that area of provincial jurisdiction. As well, the federal government tried to interfere in the area of education last fall by creating the fund for initiatives in the acquisition of knowledge and the office of learning technologies.
Even if the federal government is hiding its intervention by avoiding the word "education", it is precisely in that field of provincial jurisdiction that it wants to intervene more and more actively, as we can see from the new initiatives.
Speaking of figures, I would have liked to dwell more on the resources given to young Canadians, but I must say that getting those numbers is not easy. I am not talking about what was announced in a press release, for example, when the minister made public a certain number of initiatives last year. They were implemented later on, but we could not get the figures and details on where these services are offered and how much money was spent.
We were unable to get the figures for this year and last, although we asked for them on several occasions; we even asked the minister when he appeared before the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development. We can wonder why budget estimates concerning programs related to youth initiatives are not included in the government's estimates. Yet, they involve expenditures of several millions. This is also true in other areas of the department.
Thus last year we had to call each and every manpower centre in Quebec to ask for the amounts of money available for manpower development programs in the whole of Quebec because there was no breakdown of this information by province.
A few weeks ago, at the Human Resources Development Committee, I also asked senior officials about cuts in the amounts allocated to education support. There is a $262 million reduction from 1994-95 to 1995-96. Again last week we were
told that we would get the answer a little later because all the information had not been compiled.
Is the answer so complicated that the minister, his staff and his high officials are not able to give us an answer? Or is it because they have something to hide? If public servants cannot cope, why cut 5,000 jobs at Human Resources Development, a department which is precisely committed to finding jobs for those who are out of work, the unemployed and welfare recipients? We could also ask why new structures like the Youth Service Corps are created if we are about to close manpower centres?
In Quebec the minister says that the decision has not been taken. Yet, all employees presently working in Labour Canada centres already know that there will be a reduction in the number of manpower centres in Quebec. The number of regional centres is expected to drop from 100 to 30. This is not very encouraging for people who would like to receive employment services from the Department of Human Resources Development.
The department is cutting its spending, but is also cutting grants to organizations dedicated to employment development, particularly among young people. In the last two years, a 15 per cent cut has been announced. Yet, these organizations had a placement rate of 75 per cent, which is significantly higher than many government services. What happened?
Contracts are for one year only, and we saw recently, at the end of the fiscal year, that the minister delayed giving an answer for the current year, with the result that, in some cases, it took two weeks to get an answer for the current year, with a warning that, this time, the contract would end on March 31. So, this suggested that further cuts might be made in the next budget. Of course, such cuts were announced in the budget. This suggests that further cuts will be made, beyond this 15 per cent.
Meanwhile, as the government wants to make cuts to manpower centres in Canada and has already announced some cuts in the positions of counsellors, the very people who are there to help the unemployed find jobs, as it is cutting grants to organizations dedicated to employment development, particularly among young people, by 15 per cent, last year, it set up a new program called the youth service corps. I want to remind people that this is a new name given to a previous program, killed by the Conservatives when they took office, which was called Katimavik. This program seemed to be very dear to Senator Jacques Hébert, whose hunger strike conducted on that issue was extensively commented on by the media.
Katimavik was re-established under the new name of youth service corps, but for what purposes? Occupational activities for youngsters like cleaning river banks, community projects, some travelling. In the meantime, very productive organisations providing help to people looking for a job had their budget cut.
Some are very clever when playing with numbers. For example, the minister told us not long ago that larger amounts of money were invested in the creation of summer jobs for students. It is always the same thing. He gets this result by adding data from the summer component of the young Canada works program and from the challenge program, which now has a new name. By compiling these data, he is able to claim that we spend as much and maybe more than last year on summer jobs for young people, although Young Canada Works is intended for much younger people and is offering activities which have nothing to do with any future occupation.
As I just demonstrated, in the area of social programs, the government tried to give less money, provide fewer services, and allocate fewer resources to help people find jobs. What is even more serious, however, is that the government-despite trying to blame the situation on its efforts to reduce the deficit and repay the debt, which will soon reach $548 billion-is pursuing another strategy that is totally inconsistent with this. It is trying to interfere to a greater extent in areas of provincial jurisdiction, as it did yesterday by passing Bill C-76.
In addition to implementing some budget provisions, Bill C-76 allows the government not only to maintain health care standards but also to set new national standards in education and job training.
I am talking about the bill that was passed yesterday, but we saw it coming as early as last year, when the government clearly stated in its first budget its intention of moving in this direction. Besides the government, there are the advisory committees such as the National Advisory Board on Science and Technology, which, in its report submitted to the Prime Minister in May 1994, states that it is imperative that national standards of excellence be set with regard to the acquisition of skills and knowledge essential to good economic performance. After recently reading this little known report and checking with this advisory board, we realized that this study was done at the request of the Prime Minister's office.
Since federal funding for education comes mainly from the Human Resources Development Department, one would have expected this issue to be referred to the committee responsible for this department, on which I sit, or another related committee. Instead, it falls to an advisory committee on science and technology to examine the issue, at the Prime Minister's specific request.
If this report was completed in May 1994, this means that it was in preparation for a number of weeks or months before that. It is obvious that, almost as soon as it came to power, the new
government had the clear intention of interfering further in the area of education.
I recognize two government members who were on the team assigned to travel across Canada. They noticed, as I did, and this is a fact, that as far as national standards on education and other matters are concerned, throughout Canada except Quebec, and more in Alberta than anywhere else, people expected the federal government to step in because they were getting the feeling that their provincial government was going to the dogs and starting to cut social programs. I realized that, in the rest of Canada, Canadians did not care as much as we do about the fact that the provinces have exclusive jurisdiction over certain areas, such as education, health and social assistance.
However, in Quebec, the committee was able to see that it was just the opposite. Because of our distinctiveness, culture and history, because we are a nation, we want education to remain under provincial jurisdiction in Quebec.
The rest of Canada may change its views on social programs or education if it pleases, but we want to manage all of that ourselves. Since World War II, the federal government has been using its spending power, its power to collect taxes and redistribute funds in the areas I just mentioned: health and education in particular. It dips in the pockets of every taxpayer in Canada, including Quebec, to pay for that.
We demand our share, there is nothing wrong with that. Ideally, you know, tax points should be transferred to us. This is what we want. Quebec's National Assembly is unanimous in requesting this. Our claims began not even under the PQ government, but under the previous Liberal government. On many occasions, we asked for all our tax points for education and for job training.
I spoke about youth unemployment. We must not forget that more than 400,000 Canadians under 24 are presently unemployed. In Quebec, where 18 per cent of young people in this age group are unemployed, the situation is particularly worrisome. Add to that people on welfare. After last year's budget, unemployment rates have gone down, but because of cuts in the UI program, there are few additional jobs available.
That is why the Liberal member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce voted yesterday against his own government, claiming that social programs are being destroyed. Referring to his long experience in the House, he said that the proposals were completely contrary to what was done under Trudeau and Pearson. Everything they did was destroyed in two years. He opposed the measures with good reason.
I am not of those who encourage parliamentary dissent, but in view of the reasons given by the hon. member, I think that it is worth mentioning.
Unemployment insurance cuts are being made in three ways: by extending the eligibility period, by shortening the benefit period, and by reducing the benefit rate. More and more unemployed can no longer claim UI benefits and are forced on to the welfare rolls.
Mr. Speaker, allow me to mention a particular case in my riding, which reflects the unemployment situation and which we have not heard from in quite a while. I am referring to the MIL Davie shipyard. Two years ago, 3,000 people were working at that shipyard which, like Saint John Shipbuilding, used to build frigates, military vessels. However, the number of orders has dropped since the end of the cold war.
As you know, during the election campaign, the government now in office promised "jobs, jobs, jobs". Yet, the figures show that there are no more jobs now than before. Moreover, a large number of existing jobs are not secure. Young people and women seeking to rejoin the labour force are the two groups most affected by this situation.
What happened to the shipyard? Nothing. The federal government indirectly gave $30 million to the Magdalen Islands shipping company for a used vessel. The Quebec government decided to do something and have a new vessel built, so as to create a number of jobs.
However, it is terrible to see 3,000 people in a riding like mine suddenly lose their jobs. Yet, since the local Canada manpower centre, along with Quebec, set up a reclassification committee, the unemployment data for the Quebec City region were not overly affected. There was a 0.4 per cent increase over a one year period. So the unemployment rate went from 12.4 per cent, in 1994, to 12.8 per cent this year.
MIL Davie workers were affected by the UI cuts. In Quebec, and that includes the Quebec City region, an additional 31,000 people are on the welfare rolls because of the cuts to the UI program.
I know that some questions will follow. This will give me an opportunity to conclude.