Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to speak to this bill. We are creating jobs for young people and I want to share some facts with my colleagues.
Here are some of the facts with respect to creating new opportunities for youth. I want to share a number of points. An estimated 39,000 young Canadians who cannot qualify for UI today will now qualify for employment insurance benefits once this bill becomes law. Funding for youth is being boosted by 22 per cent from $193 million last year to $236 million this year. That is a substantial amount.
The Team Canada partnerships with provinces and businesses will give unemployed young people opportunities to develop hard, job ready skills. We recognize the difficulties facing many youths and students. As such, the Government of Canada will double its funding for summer student jobs in 1996.
For young people, once this becomes law, every hour of work will now count. Weeks are often a poor measure of time spent on the job, particularly for part time workers and multiple job holders. Four out of ten part time workers in Canada are young people under 25 years of age. Under employment insurance all work will be insured.
Employment insurance will provide income protection for more young people if they work enough hours. The hours based system will remove the glass ceiling that limits part time workers, including many young workers, to less than 15 hours a week. This will benefit many young people who start out with a number of small jobs to gain work experience.
As well, employment insurance will provide fairer premiums to many youth. About 625,000 young people will have their premiums refunded because they earn $2,000 a year or less. This represents nearly half of the 1.3 million who will receive the rebate.
For students the new system will have little impact from one perspective. For example, a student who works 14 hours a week for $7 an hour would pay less than $3 a week in premiums. In return the work is insured which is a very important objective.
Many youth will gain valuable experience with employment insurance's active employment benefits. The government is investing $800 million a year from employment insurance reform savings into direct, proven measures to get Canadians back to work. Several employment insurance employment tools will help get unemployed youth back to work.
Targeted wage subsidies will help young people get to work and get the work experience they need to round out their résumés and to qualify for jobs in the new economy.
Job creating partnerships will bring government and community groups together to give unemployed youth opportunities to gain hard, new, employable skills.
These are but some of the measures.
And here are some more. You certainly know that not everyone needs an employment benefit to find a new job. The national employment service will help young people to find jobs in new and emerging industries and to receive training for 21st century jobs.
At the present time, two million Canadians, including many young people, use information and counselling services to look for jobs. A reinforced and automated job market information system will tell young people where there are jobs available.
Human Resources Development Canada staff will also show young people how to be more efficient in their job search, through new services, especially group information sessions designed to speed up as much as possible their return to the work force.
Investing in our youth is the top priority of this government and an essential part of our job strategy. Youth unemployment is presently around 16 per cent. That is one and a half times more than the national average. Many young people go to school and rely on their summer job, or on a more regular job, to pay for their studies and to acquire the work experience they really need.
The government recognizes the difficult situation in which young people are. That is why it has taken several initiatives to respond to their concerns. We recognize that a post-secondary diploma is becoming an essential element of job stability. The budget is allocating an additional $165 million over three years to help students and their families meet the increasing cost of education.
To assist young people, we are extending the eligibility to the allowance for child care expenses in order to help a greater number of young parents working nights or going back to school.
Easier student loan repayment provisions will also give our young people a break. Young graduates will be in a better position to repay their loans when they have joined the labour force. All these measures show the absolute priority we place on giving our young people a leg up in an increasingly competitive and hard market.
I have just shared with my colleagues some facts which are rarely discussed by opposition members, in fact, which they do not even mention. Members opposite saw it as their role to attack the bill. I recognize that role as basic in a democracy such as ours. But I would have appreciated receiving concrete and specific suggestions, with related costs, as to how the bill could be improved. In addition to criticism, we would like to hear some solutions.
As I was saying, I have shared with my colleagues a number of key points with respect to this legislation. These are facts. If opposition members wish to dispute them, they may do so. I would be delighted to respond.
I find it surprising that they would not have put the positives as well as that which they see as potential negatives in front of us. We would then have a more balanced picture of what it is that is happening.
It is unfortunate there are no specifics costed out, potential responses to those weaknesses which they see. That would have improved not only the dialogue, the debate, the exchange, the discussion but perhaps even this legislation.
Having made those points, I would hope that in the spirit of the democratic ideal of this House of Commons we would look at that which is good and no matter what our political party allegiance, say it. Then look at that which can be improved on and indicate how that might be so.
I conclude with these few comments.