Mr. Speaker, I will share my time with my colleague, the member for Laval—Les Îles.
Indeed, I read the motion carefully, as opposed to what the member just said. I am very familiar with this issue. She forgot to say that I did support the motion regarding POWA. Several times, since my election, I have expressed my agreement with this idea. The Bloc Québécois is not the only party standing for the interests of workers. There are members on this side of the House who are also part of this. However, members across the floor are not as generous.
I will be pleased to speak in favour of this motion, as the minister has said, since it addresses the issues of how our government has responded--and those are the key words--and continues to respond to an aging workforce and to the profound economic transformation taking place not only in Canada but also around the world.
As I said earlier, it involves matters that are of great concern to all my colleagues, and on all sides of the House, I would like to say, especially those living in Quebec, where our population is aging more rapidly than in Canada as a whole and where we have seen a number of high profile layoffs in recent months in the apparel and textile industry.
Please allow me again to say that, as the member for Ahuntsic, a riding with many textile manufacturing and clothing companies, I have often had the opportunity to meet with the entrepreneurs behind these companies. In particular, I have met with the president of the Regroupement des marchands de la rue Chabanel, Mr. Perugini, and with Mr. Leclerc, from the Société de développement et de promotion de l'Innopôle. I do not have any lesson to learn regarding this industry, which I have stood for since 1993 in spite of the critics from the opposition.
I try to learn more about difficulties and obstacles facing these industries. Also, for a long time, I have been working hard, just as my colleague from the other side, to find ways to help these industries and their workers—mostly older people—and to ensure that our government's initiatives help them solve their problems.
While I am on the topic of the apparel and textile industries and, more specifically, their workers, who for the large part are older workers, let me remind hon. members that on May 2 of this year I announced in Montreal, on behalf of the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, funding of $5.9 million under the sector council program for four projects by the Textiles Human Resource Council, projects that will help support the promotion of skills development within the textile sector and which aim to improve our country's economic growth and competitiveness in this sector.
This was followed by another announcement again last month, which I made on behalf of the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, of $3 million for three projects aimed at improving our country's economic growth and competitiveness in the apparel sector.
We must therefore look closely at the various aspects of this motion.
For starters, I support the goal of this motion. I have already said so and I say it again. I personally support it, in view of the fact that there are older workers in my riding of Ahuntsic. I support it along with my colleagues in this House and the government. We are very concerned. It is not only the Bloc that is concerned. In addition, we are doing things and taking active steps.
I would also like to assure the hon. member that the Government of Canada is working hard to provide all workers, including older workers, with the assistance they need to meet the challenges they face on our rapidly changing job markets.
Part of this involves fostering a strong economy and job creation, since the best social program is a job. I believe the hon. member from the Bloc who introduced the motion in fact said that he does not want to just give cheques to people. He wants seniors to feel that they are part of and can still contribute to the workforce.
We have heard two sides of the coin in the discussions in the House today. One member said to just give them some money so they can get up to their pensions, and another speaker said that we should give them a cheque but that at the same time they should be working. We have been working on both ends, but more in terms of making sure that, as I said earlier, the best social program is a job. I think our record speaks for itself in terms of the type of job creation we have done.
The most recent EI monitoring and assessment report suggests that we have been enjoying considerable success in this area during the last year. Almost 289,000 new jobs were added, of which 82,000 were full time.
Allow me to also give the House a broad figure before I go on. Between 1993 and 2004, overall employment growth in the country was almost 3.2 million jobs. During the same period, employment growth for older workers, those aged 55 years and over, totalled about 868,000 jobs, which represents a 71% increase over the period. We are dealing with annual averages here. I want to repeat that: over 55, 868,000 jobs, which represents a 71% increase over the period. The figures I just quoted were from 1993 to the present, which further goes to show how devoted the government is to helping Canadian workers in general, but especially our older workers, find employment and stay employed.
While employment growth is strong overall, some workers, including older workers, do face special challenges. We accept that, which is why we have developed a wide array of programs aimed at helping such workers respond to labour market changes.
One way involves using the EI temporary income supports to help workers make ends meet while they look for another job. For example, last year $13.8 billion was paid out in EI benefits, of which $3.8 billion went to workers 45 years of age and older.
Just providing income supports is not enough, as everyone has said, and as the mover of this motion said in his opening remarks. Many older workers have excellent skills that are invaluable to employers in our increasingly demanding knowledge based economy. We need to find ways of encouraging older workers to stay in the workforce so they can continue to contribute.
Active, not passive, employment insurance measures are another way of helping workers find opportunities for developing the skills they need to be able to return to work and continue working. Once again, we have had a lot of success thanks to these measures.
Last year, nearly 600,000 Canadians participated in these programs, and of this number, 160,000 were over 45 years of age. These programs helped them develop their skills and get counselling, as well as the assistance they needed to write their resumés and do their job searches to find new employment.
I could add that these programs are designed to be very flexible and to be carried out in various ways depending on local needs and circumstances.
In Quebec, for example, these programs are delivered through Emploi-Québec in accordance with the Canada-Quebec labour market agreement. Under this agreement, the Government of Canada provides nearly $600 million a year to the Government of Quebec. The question that arises, which I asked earlier, is the following: When the separatist government was in power, why did it not introduce the same measures in its area of jurisdiction to help older workers? I have not received an answer.
Helping older workers is not something that either EI or the Government of Canada can do alone. As I said earlier, everyone needs to get involved if we are to succeed. A number of different approaches are required.
That is why we are working closely with our provincial and territorial partners on other projects, such as older workers pilot project initiatives, aimed at exploring new ways of helping older workers find new jobs and stay employed.
Between 1995 and 2005, the Government of Canada invested $50 million in this work, of which almost $21.5 million went into some 74 projects aimed at helping Quebec workers, yes, 74 projects.
Last December, I also announced funding in Montreal on behalf of the Government of Canada—as I did as well in Ottawa—for Filière Employabilité Inc. in Ahuntsic and the Association Midi-Quarante Inc. in Laval. This funding will be used to complete two pilot projects under the Canada-Quebec agreement on pilot projects for older workers.
We recently announced another $5 million in which we extend the life of the initiative to May 2006, not this year but 2006, so that we and our provincial and territorial partners can continue to explore new ways of helping older workers identify key lessons that can be used to develop new policies and programs in support of older workers.
The important thing here is the collaboration between the federal and provincial governments. I know that my time is running out, but I would like to say that we will continue to improve. We are evaluating those programs. Once the evaluations are done, I am sure that we are going to have a very good program for older unemployed workers.