Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak on this motion presented by the hon. member for Parkdale—High Park.
I can understand the member's concern about the economy and its effects on the lives of Canadians. Our government has been clear that our priority is job creation. I can assure the member that our government remains focused on our low-tax plan to create jobs and economic growth.
However, Canada does not stand alone in the world. We are aware that when our closest trading partner, the United States, is experiencing considerable slowdown in the pace of GDP growth--from 3% in the first six quarters of the recovery to only 0.4% in the first quarter of 2011--there can be an effect on Canada.
It is because of Canada's job creation ability in these fragile economic times that we have had the confidence that our government's approach is the right one. In the first eight months of 2011, Canada realized employment gains of over 193,000 jobs, and close to 600,000 new jobs have been created since July 2009.
While Canada's unemployment rate increased by 0.1% in August, we are currently experiencing the lowest levels of unemployment since January 2009. In many regions of the country, from south central Ontario to Quebec City to Saskatoon and Regina, we are seeing significantly lower levels of unemployment. We are seeing the signs of economic recovery.
Under the leadership of our Prime Minister, the economic action plan helped Canada respond to the global economic recession. Let me reflect on some of those programs that helped us respond in these fragile economic times.
Our government is dedicated to improving opportunity for Canadians through skills development. Employers increasingly require highly skilled workers who are adaptable and willing to learn. We recognize that it is more important than ever for young people to gain skills and experience to prepare for and succeed in the jobs of tomorrow.
Our youth employment programs are part of the Government of Canada strategy to create the best educated, most skilled and most flexible workforce in the world. The Government of Canada understands that helping young Canadians prepare for the jobs of tomorrow is important, especially during these hard economic times.
That is why in 2011 we permanently increased the budget for Canada's summer jobs to $10 million. The additional funding created 3,500 additional jobs for students this summer across the country, thereby strengthening our local economies and communities.
Under the 2010 budget, our government committed an additional $60 million to the skills link and career focus programs within the youth employment strategy. Through this additional support, we are helping more vulnerable youth, including high school dropouts and single parents, gain the skills and experience they need to access the labour market.
In the economic action plan and previous budgets, our government has acted to make post-secondary education and training more accessible for Canadians. For example, in budget 2011, it will help more students and low- and middle-income families get the skills and education to succeed.
Some of these initiatives include the following: allowing students to work more without affecting their student loans, allowing part-time students to have higher family incomes without affecting their eligibility for a Canada student loan and increasing the eligibility of a part-time student to access the Canada student loans program.
The Canada student loans program is a program I am proud to support, and I know first-hand its incredible benefit. Having been a recipient of the program myself, I was able to put myself through university, go to medical school and eventually become a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and help countless students and families' children. I know the tangible results of this program. I am proud that our Conservative government continues to support it.
These and other initiatives can be found under canlearn.ca, a great resource tool for Canadians, especially for those young Canadians who are applying for work and programs and scholarships and who need to find information on programs and financial assistance.
Employers in communities across Canada and around the world are always looking for workers with the best skills and talent. That is why the Government of Canada encourages people to enter the trades.
We created the apprenticeship incentive grant program, which helps Canadians pursue their apprenticeship training. This grant is a $1,000 taxable cash grant available to registered apprentices upon completion of their first or second year of an apprenticeship program in a designated Red Seal trade.
To date over 195,000 apprenticeship incentive grants have been issued, and under the economic action plan we have now made apprenticeships even more attractive. These grants are a necessary component of our job strategy, and they are designed to improve accessibility to apprenticeships and to encourage the apprenticeship process and programs so that those individuals who want to work can find those full-time jobs in their respective trades.
We are offering the apprenticeship completion grant introduced in Canada's economic action plan to encourage Canadians to complete their apprenticeship training and receive certification in a designated Red Seal trade. The Red Seal is widely recognized and respected as an industry standard of excellence in the trades, and our apprenticeship grants program ensures our apprentices continue their progress toward that goal.
The apprenticeship completion grant is a $2,000 taxable cash grant available to apprentices who complete their program and receive a journey person certificate on or after January 1, 2009. So far we have issued over 44,000 completed grants. Our government is committed to supporting hard-working individuals who work toward that goal and complete it.
With each of the apprenticeship grants, an apprentice can receive up to a total of $4,000 in grants from both of these programs. While the statistics and program descriptions are necessary, the great news for Canadians is that there is nothing better than hearing from Canadians as they describe the concrete benefits of these programs.
In my riding of Simcoe—Grey, Tim Young, the owner of Steer Enterprises in Glen Huron, is one such individual whose hard work and dedication helps him to grow his business by utilizing the apprenticeship grants program offered by the Conservative government. Currently he has three apprentices working in his company, but over the course of this program he has utilized the apprenticeship grant program offered by our government to the tune of up to 50 apprentices. These apprentices are now all getting their first successful jobs so they can move forward. These are real results and benefits, and precisely the things we need to be focused on so that Canadians can be successful. I encourage any young Canadian who is considering the trades to apply for these grants.
Through our targeted initiative for older workers, our government has helped over 16,000 older workers to find new skills and employment to help them transition at a vulnerable point in their lives.
In the first phase of Canada's economic action plan, we provided an extra five weeks of employment insurance benefits to 1.1 million claimants. We also helped 190,000 long-tenured workers receive extended EI benefits and we provided career transition assistance to support longer-term training.
We make work-sharing more flexible. In response to the recent economic downturn, our Conservative government temporarily extended the maximum duration of work-sharing agreements to 52 weeks, eased requirements for employers' recovery plans and streamlined application processes. More than 298,000 individuals have benefited from over 10,800 work-sharing agreements from February 2009 to September 2011.
Our government's work-sharing program is designed to help employers facing a temporary downturn in business to avert layoffs, and the results are clear: our program is working. Work-sharing provides a win-win circumstance for everyone involved, and our government is committed to supporting this program.
Canadians continue to enjoy the dignity that comes with a job. Employers are able to address a reduced requirement for labour, and at the end of the day people who otherwise would accept unemployment insurance benefits are attached to the workforce and continue to contribute to Canada's economic growth.
We extended the targeted initiative for older workers by $50 million over two years in the 2011 budget. This program is a federal-provincial-territorial cost-shared initiative designed to provide support to unemployed older workers in communities affected by significant downsizing or high unemployment. These programs are normally coordinated by community-based organizations and offer a combination of approaches that include skills training, work experience and assistance to become self-employed.
Older workers are valuable to our economy. They provide experience and skills and stability. They have helped build our country over the years and have contributed to our society and our economy. We need to ensure that their transition out of the workforce and into retirement is a smooth and trouble-free one that they enjoy.
Our government has also invested $420 million to renew two EI pilot programs for one year. These include working while on claim pilot projects and the best-14-weeks pilot project. The purpose of an EI pilot project is to test, for a definitive period of time, changes to the EI program. The goal is to make it more consistent with current employment practices and trends in order to improve service to the public.
The working while on claim pilot increases the working while on claim threshold to allow individuals to earn greater than $75 or 40% of their benefits and tests whether this increased threshold will provide a greater incentive for individuals to accept all available work while receiving EI benefits.
The best-14-weeks program calculates EI benefits based on the best 14 weeks of earnings over a 52-week period. It tests whether this approach encourages claimants to accept all available work prior to establishing a claim.
Furthermore, we enhanced the wage earner protection program. We are extending this program to employees who lost their jobs when their employers attempted restructuring. It takes into account the six-month and the end of bankruptcy or receivership time program. This will cost about $4.5 million annually.
In my role as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour, I can speak to the next phase of the economic action plan. We saw a $1 million investment over two years to expand the delivery of our preventive mediation program. The goal of this program is to help employers and unions move from adversarial to collaborative relationships.
Let me conclude by talking about Stephen Cecchin, who participated in the skills link program as an apprenticeship builder. Previously Stephen worked in seasonal and part-time jobs that did not provide him with much of the skills training he needed to advance his career. After participating in the Niagara Peninsula homes employment project, he was offered an apprenticeship with an electrical contractor. That is the break he needed. Now he is looking forward to building a better future for himself and his family.
Our government is working hard on making sure Canadian workers and their families can gain the skills and training they require to create opportunities for themselves.
Canadians are not asking government to create makeshift jobs. What they want is a government that believes in them and will help them with building their future. Canadians are not looking for a handout; they are looking for a hand up.
As we saw in the last election, Canadians overwhelmingly supported this government's low-tax plan for jobs and economic growth. I would ask members to do what Canadians did and support our Prime Minister as he continues to deliver on this important priority for Canadians.
