Lucienne Robillard

[Human Resources and Skills Development, April 12th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the allegation the hon. member is making in this House is a very serious one. What is going on at the present time needs to be closely scrutinized.

The request for proposals procedure is there to award contracts in a very transparent way to organizations, the majority of which are community organizations delivering services to our fellow citizens. A kind of invitation to tender is issued and the organization with the best proposal is selected.

This is the context we work in with the volunteer sector in order to improve the system as a whole.

[Question No. 98, April 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, in response to (a), the Canadian Council on Learning, CCL, was awarded a Government of Canada grant to support evidence based decision making in all areas of lifelong learning, from early childhood development, through adult and workplace learning and beyond. The independent, not for profit council will inform Canadians regularly on Canada's progress on learning outcomes, and will promote knowledge and information exchange among learning partners.

In response to (b), the CCL's office is located at 50 O'Connor, Suite 215, Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 6L2.

In response to (c), the CCL has moved from a transitional board of directors to a full board, has established an office in Ottawa, and has hired staff, including its president and CEO, Dr. Cappon.

Since his appointment in October 2004 Dr. Cappon has conducted consultations with key players in the learning community.

CCL has developed a plan to establish five knowledge centres organized around the themes of early childhood learning; adult learning; work and learning; aboriginal learning; and health and learning. One knowledge centre will be located in each of the country's five regions. the knowledge centres will be geographically distributed but nationally networked.

In addition, CCL is currently in negotiations with the Council of Ministers of Education Canada to conduct joint work on structured learning with the Canadian Education Statistics Council.

CCL is also partnering with Statistics Canada on a project to improve the infrastructure for reporting on learning indicators

In response to (d), the CCL was provided with a one-time conditional grant of $85 millions. The principal and interest of the grant are to be spent over a five year period from 2004-05 to 2008-09. The grant is governed by a funding agreement between Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and the Canadian Council on Learning.

In response to (e), it is estimated that CCL will expend approximately $1.67 million in the 2004-05 fiscal year, the first year of the grant.

In response to (f), as part of its mandate to develop an integrated plan-Canadian set of indicators that measure progress on outcomes across the continuum of lifelong learning, CCL has identified specific areas where better data sets are required. CCL has provided $397,000 to Statistics Canada in 2004-05 for a project to improve the infrastructure for reporting on learning indicators.

[Parliament of Canada Act, April 6th, 2005]

moved that Bill C-30, an act to amend the Parliament of Canada Act, the Salaries Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts, be read the third time and passed.

[Human Resources', April 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the foreign worker program was established in Canada after it was demonstrated that employers were not able to find Canadian manpower. The NDP member is getting worked up for no reason. No request relating to this issue was received by my department.

[Employment Insurance, April 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, in the last budget, our government did, in fact, make improvements to the EI program, especially in regions where, unfortunately, the unemployment rate is over 10%.

We introduced five different measures, including one to make it easier to enter the EI system, one increasing allowable earnings while receiving benefits, and a measure to have benefits calculated on the best 14 weeks of 52. These are all improvements to help employees.

[Employment Insurance, April 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, all the stakeholders are working first and foremost on creating jobs in our society.

Judging by the statistics across the country, we can take pride in the great decrease in unemployment rates.

That said, the employment insurance system is there to help our workers cope with crises that arise in a particular area. That is precisely what the system does. That is why, year after year, we have made improvements to better assist employers and employees.

[Older Workers, March 24th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, can the Bloc member understand that people aged 55 and up, even those with limited education, want to continue working? They do not want to sit at home and get a cheque. They want to continue, they want to take advantage of active return to work measures.

Does the Bloc member realize that responsibility for the workforce was transferred to Quebec a long time ago? So, we are currently working with the Quebec government to help workers.

[Older Workers, March 24th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, the old POWA became obsolete a long time ago. Workers have not wanted passive measures for a long time now. For a long time now, people aged 55 who are still in good health and who want to continue working.

Second, this is why we initiated all the pilot projects for older workers currently underway. Over $21 million has been allocated to Quebec for this purpose. We are working with Quebec on future initiatives to ensure that older workers continue to receive assistance.

[Human Resources, March 23rd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am very sensitive to the fact that some individuals have been denied compassionate care leave for various reasons. I should point out in passing that Canada is a world leader for having established this type of leave.

When we introduced it, we said that we would be reviewing the compassionate care leave program after one year. That is what we are doing right now, and we will certainly bring about some improvements.

[Question No. 67, March 9th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, during fiscal year 2003-2004, the Canada student loan portfolio consisted of 250,000 accounts, of which we received 349 requests for compromise settlement. Of these, we settled only 51 accounts for the following reasons: hardship; statute-barred; medical reasons; and balance remaining following receipt of proceeds from deceased client’s estate.