Carla Qualtrough

[Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19, September 29th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, even though we have an incredibly high rate of unemployment, there are also jobs out there. There are businesses that require appropriately skilled workers, and those are the jobs I was talking about when I was talking about filling jobs.

We know there is a skills mismatch in this country. We know that we need to have a targeted, incredibly sophisticated training strategy coming out of this pandemic to make sure that workers have the skills of the future that will get them the jobs of the future.

We also know that workers want to be properly skilled. They want to get the jobs that will provide for their families. They want to avail themselves of the opportunities to earn a good living. They can do that, and we can help by investing in skills training.

Again, these programs are delivered through the provinces and territories, and we provide the funding. It is very successful. Many of the training programs we have in this country are delivered by the provinces. I look forward to seeing what they can do with even more resources.

[Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19, September 29th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, this pandemic has really revealed the gaps in our social safety net. We have taken a more targeted approach than perhaps a basic income approach would have been. We are trying to give more to the people we thought needed it the most, particularly workers and their families, and the most vulnerable.

However, I think there is an important conversation to be had in this country about income support, about how we can seamlessly incentivize transitioning to work instead of putting barriers in place that prevent people from actually working because they so desperately need the services, programs and supports they get when they are on social assistance. There are really important conversations that need to be had.

However, today we are talking about employment income and replacement support for workers who are impacted by COVID-19. Let us not in any way take that as me saying those other conversations are not important.

[Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19, September 29th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, we have put a lot of effort into ensuring that there are no disincentives to work. These new benefits really work like employment insurance: People must be looking for work, be available for work, accept a reasonable job offer and be present in the country. They really need to be actively looking for work.

It is always more beneficial to work than to not work and receive benefits.

[Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19, September 29th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, we are trying as much as possible to parallel these new benefits to the EI system, because that system has many benefits, such as providing the incentive to work and transitioning workers back into the workforce, as well as the ideas of working while on claim and accessing training. We announced last week a $1.5-billion investment in training to be delivered through our workforce development agreements with the provinces and territories.

The plan was laid out last week in the Speech from the Throne. We have an ambitious goal of creating a million new jobs. That will be done in a number of ways, whether it is by shoring up and fortifying jobs, or filling the jobs we have in this country that are available. A lot of that is due to a skills mismatch. We want to create strategies to develop new jobs with appropriately skilled workers. One thing we hear time and time again, both nationally and internationally from employment ministers, is that training has got to be at the heart of any economic—

[Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19, September 29th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, if one thing this pandemic has certainly laid bare, it is the massive gaps in our social safety net and how many of our systems do not respond to the needs of our citizens, workers and most vulnerable. It has also given us an opportunity to, as a legacy, do better by Canadians.

One of those systems that is dear to my heart is the employment insurance system, but we only need to look at our systems of delivering, or lack thereof, directly for our citizens with disabilities. There is a lot we need to fix. There is a lot we need to do working with provinces, as many of these programs are in other jurisdictions, but we have a mutual interest to support.

The benefits we are talking about today are for workers, for people who have lost employment income, but in no way does that diminish the importance of addressing the poverty and isolation felt by so many of our citizens who are vulnerable, at risk and for whom the pandemic has taken an incredible toll.

[Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19, September 29th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, let me correct the record. I recently had a meeting of all employment ministers in provincial and territorial governments and spoke with them directly about the three new benefits we intended to create. I respectfully requested that they amend their labour codes so they would parallel the changes we would like to make to the federal labour code to offer worker protection in both provincial and federal jurisdictions.

This happened during the CERB and I expect it to happen again. I have every confidence that the ongoing constructive relationships we have with provincial jurisdictions will result in worker protection in job to job to job, whether provincial, territorial or federal, it will not matter.

[Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19, September 29th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I understand. I am here today, we will be here tonight, and I will be before the Senate in a few days. Frankly, this is an urgent matter. We decided to include these benefits in legislation that will help Canadians much more than the CERB did. It is far better to make the transition to employment insurance. The changes to EI are not legislative, they are regulatory. They do not involve legislation, but rather the regulations. Everything has been done. Over three million people are now making the transition to EI. The goal is to help Canadians and all workers.

[Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19, September 29th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, we have been dealing with this in real time, course correcting and working very hard for Canadians. One of the benefits of the plan we have put forth is it is a longer-term plan. The world changes every two to four to six to eight weeks. We have given Canadians a year-long runway so they know they will have access to these benefits for 26 of the next 52 weeks. They will have continuity, certainty and a little breathing space, because we do not know what is going to happen. Absolutely, Canadians are anxious and this recognizes that.

[Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19, September 29th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, we made a lot of effort and took a lot of time in the past six weeks telling Canadians what the plan was to transition from the CERB to EI, what the new benefits would look like, and I would say “retroactive or not”. A lot of women out there, because of the credit of EI hours, will be able to get retroactive maternity leave and parental leave. That is not just a thing one says, it is an important aspect of this transition.

We all know that the EI system was clunky and unable to serve us well when the pandemic hit. People have been working flat out to make changes and fix the system so we can now offer these better situations for Canadians. It is incredibly unfair to the people who have worked so hard to get us here to say that somehow they were not working hard enough.

[Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19, September 29th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly can. In fact, I can advise the House that we are working with every employer that has a sub plan to ensure that it is as seamless as possible, working with individual employees, and that nobody is put in a situation that is untenable, given their individual circumstances. This is an excellent example of the changes that one will see in the new benefits.

In transitioning so many people to EI, we are back to a system where sub plans are in place. We are back to a system where people can seamlessly be on both EI and earn an income. It is an excellent example of why we and officials have been working so hard to transition people back to EI.