Mr. Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to speak on Bill C-12 today, a bill that will help Canadians help themselves.
I did not have the opportunity to speak on the previous motion put forward by the hon. member for Mercier, but I am sure the hon. member will be very glad, thinking back, when the motion is defeated. I expect her premier would be very annoyed. What would the motion do for anyone in the country?
The recent budget of our neighbouring province was designed to help people and businesses. The motion would have cost our neighbouring province of Quebec hundreds of millions of dollars for businesses. It would have put us behind the eight ball, not counting the rest of the country.
I heard great news in question period today. Exports are up by tens of billions of dollars. The Minister for International Trade shared with us that for every $1 billion in exports, 11,000 jobs are created, which is good news. It is what we need to hear. I see confidence being restored in communities across the country. Following this, investments are made.
My riding of Hastings-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington is situated between Kingston and Belleville, Ontario. In the last 12 months $1 billion has been invested. This is good news for our youth. Yet we share great concerns about our youth and future of the country.
Where does the employment insurance bill leave youth? A major objective of employment insurance is to provide equal coverage to all workers, ensuring all hours of work are recognized. This is increasingly important in a world where more and more individuals have non-standard work patterns. Not only is the number of people who work part time increasing, but the number of individuals who earn a living through a number of small jobs is increasing.
The new EI system will have minimal impact on the net income of young people but includes very important benefits for all part time workers which includes young people. The new EI system will reduce benefits by 8 per cent for youth under 25 years of age, versus 11 per cent for all Canadians, and we must consider investments made in communities.
The previous speaker said no doubt we have problems and challenges with UI in our own ridings. We do. People come into our offices every day. The bill will help these people. The tools will be available for people who need them.
Given the labour market characteristics of youth, various elements of the reform will impact differently on young Canadians than on other age groups. More stringent EI entrance requirements will affect young workers, which will prevent the development of dependency on insurance benefits early in their working lives and will encourage higher levels of employment. With youth as with other people, we can do more when we offer a hand up rather than a handout.
The hours based entrance requirement and first dollar coverage will ensure every hour of work will contribute toward a claimant's eligibility. Today four out of ten part time workers are less than 25 years old. The EI system will provide income protection for more young people if they work enough hours.
Young people working less than 15 hours a week, mainly students, will be required to pay premiums for the first time under the EI system. The amount will be less than $3 a week for someone who works 14 hours at $7 an hour. There are advantages to this type of system. Insuring everyone who works, including working students, helps to ensure a level playing field in terms of premium payments and access to jobs.
Making work by students insurable will give recognition to this labour market attachment once individuals enter the labour market on a permanent basis. After completing their formal studies, if they have sufficient work, attachment in their last year as students, for example 490 hours, they would not have to meet the more stringent 910 hours entrance requirement if they faced difficulty finding stable employment.
Premiums will be refunded to approximately 625,000 young people under the premium refund program for individuals with earnings of $2,000 or less in any calendar year. This represents 48 per cent of all individuals who will receive the refund. As well, 400,000 or 31 per cent of those receiving the refund are full time students. That represents about 40 per cent of all full time students.
It is recognized that under the first dollar coverage some employers who primarily employ part time workers will be required to pay more premiums. That is why it is being proposed that a two-year premium relief measure be put in place to offset some of the cost of the first dollar coverage for small business. As well, 300,000 small businesses will benefit from this measure.
The youth unemployment rate is 16 per cent. It is a shameful number. It is over one and a half times the national average. Many young people attend school and depend on summer and/or year round work to finance their education, as well as to obtain critical job experience.
The government recognizes the particularly difficult situation facing youth and students. A number of initiatives have been announced to address these serious concerns. Youth will benefit from EI's active employment measures. Several of EI's employment tools will help unemployed young people get back to work. Targeted wage subsidies will help young people get the work experience they need to round out their résumés and to qualify for jobs. Job creation partnerships will bring government and community organizations together to give unemployed young people and others the opportunities they need to develop new, job ready skills.
Youth will remain as a top priority for federal government programs funded from general revenues. In the 1996 budget, the government announced the reallocation of $315 million of budget savings to help create employment opportunities for young Canadians over the next three years. Funding for federal summer job placements will be doubled to $120 million in 1996-97. Most of the remaining funds are being directed to assist young people who have left school to find employment opportunities. It will be in addition to existing funding of $160 million annually for youth internship and youth service Canada.
Many of these initiatives will be targeted to those with lower levels of education. They will also focus on providing employment opportunities in new and emerging sectors.
Ontario is a diverse province. There is very high unemployment in northern Ontario. In my own riding along the south shores of Lake Ontario where $1 billion is invested there is a lower rate of unemployment. In the north part of my riding it is a much higher rate. Different parts of the province will have different entry levels for EI so we can treat the people fairly according to their area.
Employment insurance will get unemployed workers back into jobs more quickly than before. Again, workers will be encouraged to help themselves.
Ontario has had to deal with major adjustments to the emerging high tech economy. Many workers lost well-paying factory and office jobs and found themselves ill-equipped to move into new jobs with comparable wages. As a result, more Ontarians have faced longer periods of unemployment. More targeted, proactive re-employment measures will assist the workers to find and maintain employment and deal with this type of structural unemployment.
Employment insurance means a workforce better prepared to meet the challenges of the rapidly changing job market in Ontario. The national employment service will offer higher quality job market information, on-line job matching services and customized employment services. Helping Ontario get back to work more
quickly means more competitive industries in Canada's economic heartland.
I have heard people talk about these job kiosks and that they can be a positive or a negative according to where they are. My riding of Hastings-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington has more than 5,000 miles of main road. The riding reaches from Lake Ontario to Algonquin Park. There cannot be an HRD office in all of these towns, yet throughout the riding there are job kiosks. This will save people driving 50 miles to find out what is available. Statistics prove that when people are encouraged to help themselves find work, they find work.
I recently stopped at North Brook, Ontario. Even I could run the kiosk. I could punch the keys and bring up the jobs. If I could do it, I am sure anybody can run that computer. Often there are jobs listed. It is good for the people in local areas to find out what is available.
The different parts of the EI legislation have to be addressed. We will have to watch to see that it does what we want it to do. The new system will be monitored. Across the country, we will be watching to see what happens. We want to help people because people are the most important part of our economy.