Finance committee  I just want to start by giving the members a sense of how big or small this benefit is. It is actually very meagre, very modest, compared to other social transfers. Just to frame this, in 2015, 1.2 million working-age Canadians received the benefit. It was an annual average of

Finance committee  Yes, and we have seen those major changes as having been helpful, but the change to the workers income tax benefit is still a modest change to a modest benefit. Just to frame it in the context of what we're talking about, when we're talking about the working poor, 7% of all econ

Finance committee  In terms of encouraging people to join the workforce, it would be helpful if the benefits from the Canada workers benefit weren't reduced based on the receipt of EI. These benefits have been earned by payment through a premium. Also, we should allow advance and more frequent pay

Finance committee  I was just going to say that clarity in general around this would be helpful, and I think it's a challenge to promote this benefit and what it means. So again, it's only applicable to those who file their taxes, and we have to remember that some low-income earners don't even fi

Finance committee  Thank you. To build on the points by my colleagues about women being underrepresented in the trades, it's very linked to apprenticeship as well. Right now only 14% of apprentices are women. It drops to four per cent when you exclude hairstyling and others. It's four per cent in

Human Resources committee  As I already mentioned with regard to the questions on deep structural training change, over-qualification in Canada and our high enrolment rates in university and education point to the fact that access to education is certainly not the sole recipe for success. It's also not sim

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. The federal government needs to do more. A lot of people used to see the public sector as full-time, permanent employment, but that's not the case anymore. Many young people are entering the federal public service, and they are working contract to contract, sometimes

Human Resources committee  Thanks for the opportunity to speak today and for asking the CLC to speak about our research report on young workers in Canada. One of the most important poverty reduction strategies is the assurance of decent work for young Canadians. Education and training are cornerstones of t