Human Resources committee  Perhaps I'll just finish what I was saying to make sure I'm answering the question properly and giving you a better understanding. As I was saying, we had the Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board when there was a different rate-setting mechanism. The government came alon

Human Resources committee  The skills and partnership fund is a true partnership program where we put out a call for proposals. We're looking for industry to invest in people. We put out a call for proposals and we get various companies. They tend to be the larger companies that are interested in taking a

Human Resources committee  Thank you. If I understand your question correctly, there was a body put in place to set the rates for the employment insurance account, and the government has announced that this body will no longer be setting the rates. It will be done now by the commission.

Human Resources committee  The funding's the same. There has been a mix of supports, and there certainly have been changes over time. The youth employment strategy is around $300 million a year. The government's certainly invested in youth. For example, they announced in the economic action plan $70 milli

Human Resources committee  The labour market agreements and the labour market development agreements are there for multiple purposes, and certainly they're a big part of the supports we provide for provinces to help youth enter into the labour markets.

Human Resources committee  In fact the funding for the labour market agreements isn't decreasing. It will continue to be $500 million. It's just the question of what tools the provinces and territories will use to support youth and to support the labour markets. In the case of the Canada job grant here,

Human Resources committee  Yes, the funding is going to be specified for the job grant. The purpose, though, is to make the funding more effective.

Human Resources committee  We don't have them. We didn't bring them with us, but we can certainly provide them to the committee.

Human Resources committee  The program is an evolving program. It has been around a long time. It was established, I think, in the early 1970s. The program evolves, the labour market changes, and the government looks at the program and how it's—

Human Resources committee  I think the changes they've made over time, this one included, respond to issues that have been identified. There are issues out there. This will ensure that we get a higher percentage of individuals who are able to speak in either official language or both. As I said, it's evol

Human Resources committee  As I said, the government is consulting employers on this issue. That is certainly something that has been said numerous times, that small and medium enterprises are very concerned about all costs, including this one. They're concerned on a wide range. As far as our role as poli

Human Resources committee  As we pointed out, there are consultations that have been going on, and are going on, so certainly a proposal like that, to look at providing more information publicly, is one avenue that would be considered under a review. I will say that a part of the answer lies in ensuring t

Human Resources committee  Sure. Let me kick that off with a few words. In the agricultural sector, I think we can separate the primary sector from the rest of the program. When it comes to agriculture, there's a well-established need by employers, a clear demand for people to do this very difficult and d

Human Resources committee  Thanks for that. I think I've partially addressed that. Again, I'll just say there's a range of measures here, and they are all working essentially in the same direction, to make sure Canadians are getting the first crack at the jobs, putting Canadians first, and to make sure th

Human Resources committee  As I said at the outset, it's a fairly large program in terms of the number of employers, 46,000 employers. Absolutely there are situations where an employer will not do, is not doing everything needed to make sure that Canadian workers are hired first, to make sure that Canadian