Madam Speaker, I am going to be sharing my time with my colleague from Elgin—St. Thomas—London South.
Do members remember their first job: the smell of the uniform, the feel of depositing their first paycheque and the pride of earning something that was truly theirs? For my generation, that first job was more than just work; it was a rite of passage. It taught us responsibility, discipline and independence. We could not wait to start. We wanted to earn money for our first car or first date, or maybe save for school.
Back then, businesses were eager to take on young people. They saw potential, not risk. Small shops, farms and restaurants hired kids and trained them, and I still remember watching those young faces light up when they realized they were being trusted to do real work.
That is how it used to be. That is how we built strong communities where every young person had a chance to learn, to grow and to start building their future. Unfortunately things have changed drastically over the last 10 years, and unless we act now, it is going to worse before it gets better.
There was a time when every business in town saw hiring young people as part of their duty and their joy. I remember summers when high school kids would line up outside the greenhouse, eager to work. We would give them a chance. We would teach them how to handle tools, how to talk to customers and how to show up on time. It was not glamorous, but it built character and grit. I would see teenagers working at diners, mowing lawns and running deliveries. They were learning the habits that make a society strong: hard work, pride in a job well done, teamwork and respect.
For many small business owners, it was rewarding. They were not just hiring someone; they were mentoring the next generation. Watching a young worker grow into confidence and seeing them save for their first car or their first apartment gave hope for the future, and that is how we built a sense of purpose: one job, one handshake and one lesson at a time. Back then our economy worked in harmony. At the local store, the farm, the trade school and the credit union, everyone played a part.
When young people thrived, the community thrived. When one generation moved up, the next one stepped in, but today these opportunities are drying up, and the next generation is paying the price.
Today our young people are doing everything right but getting nowhere. They are a generation on hold. According to StatsCan, more than 460,000 youth are unemployed. That is nearly 15% of everyone aged 15 to 24, the highest rate we have seen in over a decade, outside the pandemic. For students trying to balance school and work, it is even worse; 17% cannot find a job. In Ontario, over 17,000 young people lost work just last month. Across the country, the youth employment rate has dropped to its lowest level in 25 years.
These numbers represent actual lives on hold: kids moving back home because they cannot afford rent, graduates working jobs that do not use their skills, or young couples putting off marriage or kids because they cannot build stability. Even among young people with post-secondary degrees, one in six is working outside their field. They studied, they borrowed and they worked hard, but still they cannot find a place to belong in this economy.
The Liberal government's economic failure has made life harder at every turn, with higher taxes, higher rent, higher prices and fewer opportunities. While they pat themselves on the back for resilience, families see the truth: Our young people are struggling, not because they lack talent or ambition but because government policies have shut the door on opportunity.
This is not a blip. It is not just a tough year. This is a crisis, and it is one the Liberal government's bad policies have created. If we do not act and act fast, we are not just losing jobs; we are losing an entire generation. When young people cannot find their first foothold, they start falling behind, not just financially but also emotionally. They lose confidence. They start to believe the system is not built for them. We are already seeing record mental health struggles, delayed families, lost skills and an economy that is missing out on the potential of young people.
It is not just their problem; it is also ours. A country that does not make room for its young people is a country losing its future. If we allow this to continue, we will face a generation that is less secure, less optimistic and less connected to the Canada we grew up in. That is not a legacy any of us wants to pass on.
We cannot build tomorrow on unemployment lines. We cannot build families on debt. We cannot even build dreams when the path to success has been blocked by bureaucracy and bad policies. We need to turn this around now.
That is why the Conservatives are putting forward a serious plan, one rooted in common sense, hard work and fairness. I would like to touch on two pillars: unleashing the economy and fixing the broken immigration system.
When I was younger, the local mechanic always had a student sweeping the floors and learning the trade. The diner had teenagers busing tables and saving up for their first car. Every small business in town was proud to give a kid their first start. Today, those jobs are disappearing, not because Canadians do not want to hire, but because it is too expensive to hire. It is too complicated and too uncertain to grown a business in this country anymore.
Under the Liberals, we have seen investment flee overseas, projects get cancelled and small businesses squeezed dry. Red tape has become a growth industry all its own. We need to turn that around.
The Conservatives will repeal the anti-resource laws that have scared away billions of dollars in private investment and shut down entire communities, because the best way to help young Canadians find work is to let our economy work. We will cut taxes to drive reinvestment and job creation, letting employers keep more of what they earn so they can hire again, expand again and believe again. We will slash the mountains of red tape that make it easier to start a business in Texas than in Toronto.
When businesses are free to grow, jobs follow. It is not complicated; it is common sense. We do not need more government transformation strategies or glossy reports written by consultants who have never run a payroll in their lives. We need shovels in the ground, paycheques in pockets and opportunity back on main street. Every new shop that opens, every truck that rolls off the lot and every mine that reopens is a door opening for a young Canadian who just wants a chance. That is what unleashing the economy really means: believing in Canada again.
Let us talk about another piece of the puzzle, immigration. Canada has always been a nation built by newcomers. It is part of who we are. However, immigration has to work for everyone: for those arriving and for those already here trying to build a life. The Liberals have lost control of the system. They have flooded the labour market with no plan for housing and no plan for matching skills to real jobs.
While hundreds of thousands of young Canadians cannot find work, the government is on track to issuing among the highest number on record of temporary foreign worker permits. How can that be possible? It is not fair to the Canadians struggling to find a job, and it is not fair to the newcomers who come here expecting opportunity, only to find chaos. The Conservatives will realign immigration with labour market realities by bringing in the people we actually need to fill genuine shortages, not paper quotas designed to hit political talking points.
We will fix credential recognition so that newcomers trained as doctors, engineers and nurses can work in their professions instead of driving taxis, while our hospitals and job sites go short-staffed. When we match skills with need, everybody wins. Young Canadians get a fair chance to start their careers, and new Canadians get the respect and opportunity they came here for. That is the Canadian bargain, or at least it used to be. We intend to bring it back.
This is how we restore confidence in our economy. It is by trusting Canadians again, by giving business owners the freedom to grow and by treating workers, both new and born and raised here, with fairness and respect. If we unleash the economy and fix immigration, we will open the floodgates of opportunity. Young Canadians will not have to leave their hometowns or move back in with their parents just to survive. They will finally have that first chance to work, to save, to build and to start living.
This country was never meant to hold its young people back; it was built to lift them up. Every young person deserves to believe that their hard work still pays off and that the future still belongs to them. We can fix this. We can rebuild an economy where every teenager, every student and every young graduate gets that first chance, and where our kids can save for their first car, their first home and their own family someday. That is the Canada we grew up in and that is the Canada we owe them.
I have to ask this of the government: When will it stop making excuses, stop burying our youth under red tape and debt, and start giving them the same shot at success that built this country in the first place? The next generation is not asking for a handout; it is asking for a fair chance.
