Madam Speaker, I rise this evening to address the continuing, worsening youth unemployment crisis. The youth unemployment rate now is at 14.3%. We recently asked the finance minister about the youth unemployment crisis in this country. He would not agree in the House that we face a youth unemployment crisis, and he was not even able to state the youth unemployment rate. That is from the finance minister of this country, which shows how asleep at the switch the government is. It has no plan to address a crisis that it will not acknowledge and does not even understand the magnitude of.
However, there is good news as well. This week the human resources committee tabled its detailed report on a youth unemployment crisis study, which contains many recommendations that, actually, specifically reflect the Conservative youth jobs plan. As we have called on the government to confront this youth unemployment crisis, we have put forward a Conservative youth jobs plan to unleash the economy, to fix immigration, to fix training and to build homes where the jobs are, and now we have a unanimous report from the human resources committee that reflects these key Conservative priorities.
I want to congratulate the members of the human resources committee from all parties who got behind these Conservative priorities. Now it is time for a government that has been asleep at the switch for too long to recognize this crisis, to talk to young people, to read the statistical reports, to know the information and to implement a real plan that reflects what Conservatives have put forward and what is contained in this all-party report.
I want to highlight a number of the recommendations. First, this all-party report recommends that “the Government of Canada seek to reduce taxes and red tape in order to address concerns about how the taxation and regulatory environment has limited productivity growth and held back youth employment.” It is incredible, an all-party recommendation calling on the government to respond to this Conservative priority to reduce taxes and red tape.
Recommendation two states, “That the Government of Canada recognize the positive role that natural resource development, manufacturing, and all other sectors play in contributing to employment, and seek to valorize work in all sectors.”
Recommendation three deals with recognizing the role that immigration policy failures have had in contributing to youth unemployment, and addressing them.
Recommendation five calls on the government to “apply strict penalties to companies hiring illegal workers.” We have actually had cases where companies that have been punished for hiring illegal workers went on to get government subsidies. When we have this culture of permissiveness toward companies hiring illegal workers, it contributes to youth unemployment.
Recommendation seven calls on the government to “celebrate the value and dignity of trades work [and] ensure that institutions providing trade skills are treated equally and fairly”. That responds to the fact that the government has actually removed funding for grants from students attending vocational institutions. That is, if someone is trying to pursue in-demand skills at a vocational institution, the government has cut them off from getting a student grant. We would reverse that, and that is what is alluded to by recommendation seven in this all-party report.
There are many great recommendations in this report. It provides a clear blueprint for the government to follow, building on the Conservative youth jobs plan released in the fall. The government is doing nothing. Young people are getting desperate. The government needs a plan. We now have an all-party report that follows the lead of the Conservatives with specific concrete recommendations.
Is the government prepared to implement these constructive recommendations in the 10th report of the human resources committee?