Human Resources committee  Thank you, Chair, and thank you to all of our witnesses. I'm going to start today with Richard Holden. You talked about the shortage of dental assistants to service the needs of the existing burden on the dental care system. In light of the NDP-Liberal plan to make a national

Human Resources committee  That's very good. Thank you. I have a question for Ms. Shields. I saw that CMHA did a study with UBC that said 41% of people in Canada have reported a decline in their mental health since the onset of the pandemic. That is what you said. Do we know what the impact of this gr

Human Resources committee  Very good. Thanks so much.

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much. I fully agree. I'm increasingly concerned when I see that we have an aging demographic and an increase in dementia, which will only exacerbate, I think, the already difficult situation. Mr. Janerio, do you have any information about the percentage of PSWs w

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. That's the direction we need, for sure. Dr. Smart, we heard testimony the other day from Linda Silas about nurses. About 8% of them lost their jobs because they weren't vaccinated. That just made the situation even worse when there was already a shortage of nurses.

Human Resources committee  What are the biggest barriers to getting more doctors in Canada, which is clearly what we need? Is it credential recognition? Is it financial donations from the federal government? What is the barrier?

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Chair. Thank you to all of the witnesses for being here today and for all the work you've done. I'm going to start with Mr. Villeneuve. Talking about nurses, my daughter is a nurse. I'm certainly well aware of many of the issues facing nurses. She's been attacked.

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.

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  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?