Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our witnesses for being here today. When I was on the health committee, we did a study on long-term care and some of the factors affecting it. Nurses and PSWs were part of that. I believe Ms. Silas gave testimony there. With respect to the

Human Resources committee  It's really unfortunate, then, that we fired so many nurses and PSWs for being unvaccinated. That certainly made a bad situation even worse. In terms of recognizing credentials across provinces, is there adequate recognition of credentials for nurses, and are we graduating enoug

Human Resources committee  Mr. Bolduc, you spoke of the need for nurses. Would immigration be a way to meet this need?

Human Resources committee  I must interrupt you, because my time is up. Thank you.

Human Resources committee  Thanks, Mr. Chairman. My questions, first and foremost, are for Ms. Silas. They're related to the whole issue of recruitment. You were very clear in your opening statement, when you identified both recruitment and retention issues. Many of the questions posed to you this morni

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was going to suggest that, with the committee's approval, the parliamentary analyst forward those reports to you for your consideration. It could inform the study. One was on unpaid work and the other was on working conditions in long-term care.

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Chair. Thank you to members from the department. I'm happy when the minister shows up to interrupt my time. I'm happy to have her make her comments and to perhaps have a chance to ask her a question. I have some questions on the mandate and some questions that are m

Human Resources committee  Thank you.

Human Resources committee  Let's hear from the minister. Can I have the rest of my time to ask her questions after that?

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Minister, for appearing today. I want to start with some of the items in your mandate letter. I agree that the modernizing of the employment insurance program could be more fair. My understanding of this program is that employees pay premiums. If t

Human Resources committee  It certainly does seem unfair. I noticed in your mandate letter that you have a goal of increasing the number of personal support workers by 50,000, which is good to hear because we all know that we're short and long-term care facilities are suffering. Is this target before or

Human Resources committee  Okay, thank you. I'm very interested in the disability benefit. There were private members' bills that the Conservatives brought forward to try to address the issue that when disabled people want to work, they actually lose their benefits so it's a punishment to them for going t

Human Resources committee  Speaking of poverty, I have a lot of seniors in my riding and obviously the cost of everything is going up—gas, groceries and heating—and people can't always afford all of those. I wanted to ask about the policy that awarded increases to seniors over the age of 75 but excluded t

Human Resources committee  No problem. I have one final question. We have heard of this NDP-Liberal coalition and that there have been agreements made in the back room about what programs might be added. Can you clarify what, if anything, will be added to the estimates that we're seeing here in order to

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Minister.