Lost his last election, in 2006, with 38% of the vote.
The Budget February 20th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I am sure that Quebec's Minister of Finance, Mr. Landry, will put his 31 per cent of federal transfer payments to the provinces to good use in his next budget. Although we represent only 25 per cent of the population, 31 per cent of federal transfer payments, and 46 per cent of equalization payments, is not bad.
I think the Government of Quebec is not doing too badly.
The Budget February 20th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I read with interest the statement made yesterday by the Prime Minister, who was commenting on the budget brought down by the Minister of Finance.
What we saw, and I would like to confirm this today in the House, should there be any ambiguity whatsoever, is the government's commitment to the national child benefit, which is an ongoing benefit. It is an ongoing benefit from our government to assist children in low income families.
This is not a program one starts up and then pulls out of. It is a program we have developed in partnership with the provinces that is perfectly compatible with the Government of Quebec's family policy.
As far as the national child benefit is concerned, I can reassure you that this is an ongoing commitment on the part of the Government of Canada.
Employment February 18th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, the member will have to look at the jobs strategy before commenting on it. This is precisely what we are doing. We are doing precisely that in partnership with the private sector and non-governmental organizations in creating jobs. These work experiences will not be in the government. They will be in the private sector and non-governmental organizations.
That is why this strategy for young people who want to find jobs and gain work experience is greatly appreciated across Canada. In partnership with the private sector and non-governmental organizations, we will provide 110,000 young Canadians with work experience to get them out of the no experience, no job and no job, no experience cycle.
Employment February 18th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, our government was extremely
pleased last week to be able to give some hope to children and young unemployed people who really want to do something with their lives. That is what the youth of this country want and that is what we are giving them.
There is the amount of $2 billion that we are already spending for young people in this country. We have announced two major new programs to gain work experience and 110,000 young Canadians will have access to some work experience in order to get them out of the no experience, no job and no job, no experience cycle. Our government is doing a lot. We need to do more and that is what we will do.
Child Poverty February 13th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his very interesting and extremely important question. I agree that the government is very much involved with alleviating the situation of children living in low income families.
I reassure the House we will make absolutely clear that this is a national project. We will be working with the provinces and the federal Government of Canada will have a platform. The provinces have committed that any money which would be freed up from the new federal platform would be reinvested in services for children living in low income families in all provinces of Canada. We will be renegotiating with them to put together a reallocation framework. I trust they will work very well with us.
Employment Insurance February 13th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, with the transitional measures, the government decided in favour of the person who worked the last 26 weeks in 1996. At the time, employers had no system to determine if the hours of work had actually been completed and we operated on the assumption that every week claimed, whether or not 35 hours of work were actually performed, was a 35-hour week. We are doing claimants a favour, giving them the benefit of the doubt. This way, 22 hours become 35 hours.
As for those who may have worked 50 hours, what the opposition is requesting for them did not exist under the former system,
because these hours were not insured under the system. There were only 35 insurable hours per week.
Employment Insurance February 13th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, the hon. opposition member said we had acknowledged that are flaws in the system. What our government acknowledges, and the Prime Minister referred to it this morning, is having had the courage to carry out a comprehensive reform, reviewing the entire unemployment insurance system, which was so dear to the hearts of our friends opposite but which no longer met the needs of the people on the modern job market at all.
What this government has always maintained, as did two of my predecessors at Human Resources Development Canada and as I myself have done since my appointment as the Minister of Human Resources Development, is that we will closely monitor the transition to the new employment insurance system and, if adjustments are required here and there, we are prepared to make them in order to improve service to Canadians.
Canadian Government February 13th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, we can reply with great confidence to the questions from the Leader of the Opposition because I think that people across Canada have noticed the renewed effort by cabinet in our integrated approach with the provinces for the benefit of children; we have made an integrated national child benefit a priority.
Manpower has been mentioned. I would like to explain to our colleagues across the way that the Government of Canada has offered publicly-my predecessor made this offer last May 30-to transfer responsibility to the provinces. We have already signed agreements, which is a clear indication of our good faith, with two provinces, Alberta and New Brunswick, and we are continuing to negotiate very actively with the Government of Quebec.
I can assure the Leader of the Official Opposition that many of these issues are well on the way to being settled.
Questions On The Order Paper February 13th, 1997
As part of a major redesign of income security programs intended to streamline and modernize our delivery systems, the Canada pension plan, CPP, disability program was decentralized during 1996. This included the regionalization of
operations and brought decision making for CPP disability applications and reconsiderations closer to our clients throughout Canada.
Roll out of the regional functions occurred on a schedule from November 1995 to June 1996.
As a result, all applications for Canada pension plan disability benefits, except those for Quebec and Prince Edward Island, are received and processed in the regions.
From January to the end of December 1996, Canada pension plan reveived 79,778 applications for disability benefits.
It is a massive undertaking to move files, functions, technology and some staff from headquarters to 10 regions, and to train local personnel who will be performing new duties, all this while continuing to receive and process applications of the magnitude received by CPP on a daily basis. Delays are inevitable during a breaking-in period. We are in that period now.
This adjustment period and the loss of some economies of scale subsequent to decentralization and the underestimation of resources have resulted in backlogs in some regions in the adjudication of disability applications.
a) Presently, the average national time to process a disability application in the region is 59 working days. In some instances further information is required from medical specialists. These cases require additional time beyond the national average. The following reflects the time elapsed from receipt of the application to the time a decision to grant or deny benefits is made. By region, it is as follows:
Newfoundland: 41 Nova Scotia: 35 New Brunswick: 60 Ontario: 49 Manitoba/Saskatchewan: 43 Alberta: 68 British Columbia: 117
b, c) A major redesign of the systems supporting the Canada pension plan disability process is under way. When it is in place in 1998 it is expected that the average processing time for a disability application will drop to 30 days. This will also give us the means to gather, manipulate and analyse in a variety of sophisticated ways data regarding various aspects of our service delivery approaches.
Until then it is not possible to provide the response time in terms of the median time and the maximum time for each quintile of applicants.
Plans are under way to redirect as of March 1, 1997 some regional files to headquarters where the efforts of some 30 adjudication staff will be redirected from the reassessment program to the processing of regional disability applications. Decreasing the backlog in British Columbia as well as Ontario where the volumes are greatest will be the first priority.
All regions are presently implementing an action plan that will decrease response time to an acceptable level by the end of May 1997. This will include hiring and training additional staff, the use of overtime and further streamlining of work processes.
A national committee has been established to develop an improved method of forecasting resources required for the disability program.
Employment February 12th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his excellent question. This morning, along with 13 of my colleagues, I had the very great privilege of announcing the strategy for youth employment that we are offering to Canadian youths who face a very challenging situation in entering a complex and difficult labour market.
We are working very hard at plugging these young Canadians into the new economy. This morning we created a web site to give them information on all available programs. We are doing this in partnership with the private sector and non-governmental organizations.
They will have internships in the growth sectors of the economy that will allow them to get jobs. We are building on programs that have been demonstrated they work well. Sixty-eight per cent of young people who have participated in an internship program have got a job within six months.