Debates of Nov. 1st, 2006

Human Resources and Skills Development—Main Estimates 2006-07

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, I plan to ask a series of questions and then make a statement close to the end of the 15 minutes.

I notice that $27 million has been spent to design and promote the universal child care benefit. How much of that is being spent on putting ads in newspapers and on radio stations, and from which department does the money come?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Mr. Chair, according to my records, our advertising campaign to raise awareness of the universal child care benefit to make sure that all of the eligible parents applied which wrapped up in September and which included Internet, newspaper and radio advertising, cost approximately $2.9 million.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, I hope the minister will respect the time.

I assume then that the funds come from the HRSD department. Yes or no?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Yes.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, $25 million has also been cut from the first nations children on reserve funds that are supposed to be used to hire teachers, develop specialized programs and other early learning education programs.

Why was that money cut?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Mr. Chair, I would ask the hon. member if she could provide a little more detail. We do have a number of programs and I am not quite sure to which one she is referring.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, in the 2005 budget there was supposed to be $700 million for child care; $650 million has been sent to the provinces and another $25 million was supposed to be for first nations children on reserve. I am just wondering whether that money is being spent or not.

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

I do apologize, Mr. Chair, but at the moment based on the information the member has provided, I cannot identify that particular program. I would be happy, however, to meet individually with the member to discuss it further and to answer her questions.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, I thank the minister very much for that answer. I think the answer to my the next question will be the same, which is regarding the $25 million also on child care which is for research and accountability on the whole child care program. I do not believe that money is there either. If the minister does not have the answer we could investigate that further.

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Mr. Chair, I would be happy to pursue that with the member.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, I notice there will be at least $240 million that would be collected from taxes from the universal child care benefit by April; that is the prediction from the department. What intention does the minister have on spending this money? Would this money be going back into child care or would it go to general revenues?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Mr. Chair, the rules of the government dictate that the money go directly into consolidated revenue.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, that is really too unfortunate, because that is the money from working families and the children.

I want the minister to name one other department that has sustained more cuts than her own. My reading is that the Department of Human Resources and Social Development sustained the largest percentage cut in the entire operation of the government. I have a list here and it looks like the Human Resources and Social Development cut is $152.8 million. Is there any other department that received this dollar amount cut or any that received a larger percentage cut?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Mr. Chair, I think we need to place it in context. This is probably the largest department. I am not exactly sure whether financially it is. I know it is almost $80 billion. The savings that we are realizing for Canadians, including CMHC, amount to $152 million. That is a very, very, very small percentage.

The key here is that we are saving on programs that just have not been delivering results for Canadians. The opportunity is there to realize savings while improving quality by just letting us do it better. There is tremendous opportunity there. I would not be able to comment on savings realized in other departments.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, speaking about good programs, I note that $55.4 million has been cut from the youth employment programs through the summer career placement program. That is a cut of more than 50% to this very precious program. It is a program that leads to 55,000 jobs a year. It really helps students offset their huge student debt. It helps them get on the job training. It helps non-profit organizations and rural businesses compete with larger corporations for summer student help.

Can the minister tell us how many fewer jobs will be offered next summer? How did she arrive at the conclusion that 50% of the jobs will be cut?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Mr. Chair, when we looked at the summer career placement program, which has a very noble purpose to help students earn money to go back to school and also to increase their work experience, we quickly realized that it was oversubscribed. In other words when we checked, fully a third of employers actually admitted that they would have provided these jobs even if they had not received the funding provided through this program. Now if only a third admitted it, imagine how many actually believed it.

When Tim Hortons cannot hire people to work in Calgary, we do not believe that we should be subsidizing $20 an hour summer jobs there. We will be focusing on where students need help, whether it is rural communities, whether it is new Canadians, wherever the barriers are to employment. We will help students where they actually need it.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, the minister talked about Tim Hortons, which is of course a company. I am wondering whether the minister would commit that the remaining amount of the funds will go only to non-profit organizations that are in desperate shape and need the funds to create the jobs rather than companies that probably have other means of finding employees.

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

What we want to do, Mr. Chair, is make sure that we are providing opportunities for students wherever those opportunities exist.

I should point out that the subsidy to private business for these jobs is only 50%, not 100% as for the not for profit sector. I would caution the hon. member that it will be the small businesses that take advantage of this program in many communities where students have a tough time finding a job. That is where the jobs will be created, the very ones the member is so eager to create, as am I.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, the minister said that almost one-third of employers who participated in the program last summer said they would have created some of those jobs. However, that is one-third. How does she come to the conclusion that more than 50% of the program would be cut? If she is using that as a reason, then surely it should not be 50%; it should be less than a third.

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Mr. Chair, we took a look at where the demand was, where we saw people getting jobs that would have existed anyway. We do not need to spend Canadian taxpayers' money to create jobs for students in Calgary. I am sorry, but we do not need to do that. We need to do it elsewhere. We need to get the focus of this program back on students and on creating meaningful jobs that will help them gain valuable experience and money to help them continue with their education.

[The Deputy Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

At the beginning of this time slot, the hon. member for Trinity—Spadina mentioned that at the end of the time slot she would be making closing remarks. How much time does she want so that I can give her notice?

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, thank you for helping out. I noticed that I have five more minutes because I had 15 minutes.

[The Deputy Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

You have four and a half minutes.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, I will time it in order to make the end statement accordingly, as long as I do not run out of time. I just have a few more questions, if that is okay. I thank the Chair for his assistance.

My question is on the summer student employment program. Perhaps the minister can say that in Calgary there are lots of jobs around, but certainly there are other areas, for example, in Toronto, with quite a few vulnerable communities where young people are desperately in need of summer employment programs.

Would the minister consider starting a new program? Would she consider reinvesting some of the funds that have been put aside or cut or whatever in some of the vulnerable communities where a large number of young people are unemployed and alienated, some of whom are turning to criminal activities?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Mr. Chair, in fact one of the areas that we are going to be focusing on is helping youth at risk and students in communities with high crime. Those are barriers to the workforce and we want to help them overcome those barriers.

As we are currently in the process of reviewing this program, I would certainly invite the member to share her ideas for a new program so that as we go through with this and make changes to it, we can look at including some of her ideas. That would be just great.