Human Resources committee  In your first question, I think you have raised one of the more fundamental issues that almost all OECD countries are facing, the balance between flexibility in your labour and product markets with the social supports. When you look across countries—and it goes to the question I

Human Resources committee  I think that's absolutely right. There's a group of folks who could be served under the LMA. In this instance, we're thinking about young people who are working and are paying employment insurance premiums. The minister, when he was here, talked about the idea that young people a

Finance committee  There has been quite a bit of work and study in the area—and we can certainly provide some references to the committee clerk about it—on whether or not high employment rates of older workers actually result in higher unemployment rates for young people. There is no empirical ev

Finance committee  In short, the committee and this study that you're doing are so important in today's age. As a person who runs employment programs, I am often dealing with a semi-finished product or a person who's already made many learning choices in their life. And reaching into the system and

Finance committee  I think it's important to know that the Canada job grant is for all Canadians. It's not only for the employees of a particular business. It's designed for anybody to get either a better job or a new job. I think that the challenge—and it's a great challenge for the country—will

Finance committee  On the job grant itself, it's going to be extraordinarily interesting to see how the provinces and territories innovate around the design of it, with employers working with local service providers and connecting them with youth in those communities to get the jobs. I can see yo

Finance committee  I want to address one part of this, and that's the kids who leave home to go to school. Many kids in this country do that. The communities would like to have them back, at least for the summers, to get employment there. In that vein, with the Canada summer jobs program that we ru

Finance committee  Sure. In communities like you're speaking of in the inner city of Montreal, the Skills Link programming is fundamentally important with its project base, a full continuum of supports, a menu, if you like. When it was designed and put in place some years ago, it was a world-leadin

Finance committee  I think the job grant is going to be fundamentally important for young people. I think it helps address some of the issues that were raised by the previous member about the match between skills and talent in the economy and employers' needs. The grant itself will provide a transf