:
I call the meeting to order.
Pursuant to Standing Order 81(5), we are considering supplementary estimates (B) 2008-09, votes 1b, 5b, 15b, under Human Resources and Skills Development, referred to the committee on Thursday, January 29, 2009.
I want to welcome everyone here today. I also want to thank Mr. Lessard for taking care of the committee during the last half hour this morning.
Here we are again. I want to thank the minister for making herself available. I know that we were working hard last week to find a time that would work for everybody. We know how busy you are today, and we appreciate your taking the time to meet with the committee to go over estimates.
I'm not going to do much more talking other than to welcome the rest of the department here. Then we'll get right to the minister's opening statement of around 10 minutes. After that, we'll go to our seven-minute round, followed by five minutes.
We have you here for an hour, Ms. Finley, so I'll turn the floor over to you for your opening statement. Thanks for being here.
:
As well, to my right is Karen Kinsley, the President of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
First of all, let me say that I'm very pleased to be here before the standing committee to answer questions about the 2009 supplementary estimates (B) and to talk about our department's role in supporting Canadians through our government's economic action plan.
Human Resources and Skills Development provides assistance to Canadians of all ages, everyone from families with young children to seniors entering their golden years. We assist students making the transition from school to work. We help workers make the transition from one job to another. We assist the unemployed reintegrate into the workforce, and we help those making the transition from the workforce to retirement.
[Translation]
We also play an important role in assisting some of society's most vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, aboriginal Canadians and those with lower incomes.
[English]
Mr. Chair, many Canadians are facing difficult times of transition during the current economic slowdown. Over the last few months, the global economic situation has deteriorated further and faster than anyone had predicted. While Canada continues to fare better than many other countries, Canadians are feeling the effects of the global recession, and they're concerned.
I understand their worries. Every day I hear and see first-hand the stories of those who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. I see and hear first-hand the stories of those who are worried about making ends meet. They're worried about keeping their jobs. They're worried about being able to pay their mortgages. They're worried about being able to take care of their families. Many are even worried about simply putting food on the table.
It's during these difficult times that Canadians need to know that their government is listening to them and that we have an action plan that will help them. To address the most pressing needs of workers affected by the current economic downturn, Canada's economic action plan is investing $8.3 billion for the Canada skills and transition strategy.
Let me discuss many of the items that are part of this strategy.
[Translation]
We will help those facing unemployment. We will protect jobs. We will invest in training and skills development.
[English]
Further to our Budget 2008 commitment, we'll also make post-secondary education more affordable and accessible for Canadian students and families by investing in new student financial assistance measures beginning in the fall of 2009. As part of our economic action plan, we're proposing to increase funding to the provinces and territories so that more Canadians can have access to the training and skills they need to land a new job.
[Translation]
But we cannot do it alone. We will do it in partnership with the provinces and territories.
[English]
So recognizing that the provinces and territories have the pulse of their local labour markets, we'll invest $1 billion over two years through the employment insurance program under existing agreements. These funds will enable provinces and territories to train an additional 100,000 EI-eligible clients in hard-hit sectors and regions of our economy.
A proposed new strategic training and transition fund will provide $500 million over two years. This fund will provide flexibility to help meet the different training and support needs of workers affected by the downturn, whether or not they qualify for employment insurance, and up to 50,000 individuals could benefit.
Another area of investment is the targeted initiative for the older workers program. We are increasing this program's budget, providing an additional $60 million over three years, and we're expanding its reach. Assistance will be made available to more workers in a large number of cities, particularly those heavily dependent upon a single sector or single employer facing adjustments.
We have an apprenticeship incentive grant to encourage more Canadians to get into the skilled trades, and we propose to build on this by adding a new grant for apprentices who successfully complete their apprenticeship training in a red seal trade. This $2,000 grant could benefit up to 20,000 eligible apprentices per year.
To further support the trades, the Prime Minister and premiers recently agreed to work together so that Canada can benefit from the experience of skilled new Canadians. To this end, we are committing $50 million over two years to help more newcomers obtain the certification they need to get to work quickly once they get to Canada.
Mr. Chair, let me now turn to employment insurance. In an economic downturn EI is the first line of defence. As members know, EI has important features that automatically respond to changing economic conditions. As employment rates increase in a given region, the number of hours required to access EI is reduced, and the duration of benefits increases. The government, however, is taking significant additional steps to help Canadians. For the next two years we'll make available nationally the five weeks of extended EI benefits that have previously been available through a pilot project only in regions with the highest unemployment. The government will also increase the maximum duration of benefits to 50 weeks. Some 400,000 claimants could benefit from these changes.
We also intend to support long-term training for those workers who have worked many years and did not make significant use of EI. We would extend income support for the duration of their training, and this would benefit 40,000 workers.
The government will also freeze EI premium rates for 2010 at $1.73 per $100. This is the same rate as 2009, and it provides a projected stimulus of $4.5 billion relative to break-even rates.
What's more, we'll extend work-sharing agreements by 14 weeks to a maximum of 52 weeks. This will enable Canadians to continue working while companies adjust to a temporary slowdown and recovery. To complement this measure, we're also proposing to increase access to work-sharing agreements through greater flexibility in the qualifying criteria.
In terms of processing EI claims, our priority is to ensure that clients receive their EI benefits just as quickly as possible. We've already made significant efforts and investments to process the increasing EI claims. We're hiring additional staff, redistributing workloads across the country, and recalling recent retirees. We're also increasing overtime, opening EI call centres on Saturdays, and increasing automation of claims processing, and we will do more as it's needed.
In a time of economic uncertainty, housing is of particular importance to Canadians. We have an obligation to protect the most vulnerable citizens in this country. In September 2008 our government committed $1.9 billion over the next five years for housing, to improve and build new affordable housing for low-income Canadians and to help the homeless. Canada's economic action plan invests more than $2 billion in additional social housing, creating jobs in construction and renovation. We hope provincial and territorial governments will match this investment because this will help families and individuals in need access safe and affordable housing at rents they can afford. It will bring older projects up to standard and make them more energy efficient.
[Translation]
We will also invest in new social housing for low-income seniors and persons with disabilities so they can continue to live independently in their communities. We have an obligation to protect the most vulnerable citizens of this country.
[English]
That's why our government, in September 2008, made a five-year commitment of $1.9 billion to extend housing and homelessness programs to low-income Canadians. And we will be building new social housing and repairing and modernizing existing social housing in first nations communities and in Canada's far north.
The supplementary estimates addressed a couple of issues that are close to my heart. Elder abuse is a subject that has required a focused and coordinated effort, involving the Department of Justice, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the RCMP, with HRSD providing a leadership role.
[Translation]
We are now in a position to work with stakeholders to help seniors and others to prevent abuse and recognize the symptoms.
[English]
On the disabilities side, I took great pride in helping launch the Canada disability savings program. The goal is to provide for the financial security of persons with severe and prolonged impairments and physical or mental functions.
[Translation]
My personal struggle with a physical disability has taught me the importance of providing avenues for independence and self-sufficiency for persons with disabilities. They appreciate that so much.
[English]
Mr. Chair, our government recognizes the challenges ahead. We understand and sympathize with those who are going through these difficult times. Following the most extensive pre-budget consultations that our country has ever seen, we've heard from and are delivering for Canadians through our economic action plan. This plan will stimulate the economy and will create and maintain jobs.
As parliamentarians, we owe it to Canadians to pass this legislation as soon as possible.
[Translation]
This plan is currently before Parliament, and I urge all members to pass it without delay.
[English]
I now invite committee members to ask questions on the supplementary estimates (B) or on any of the HRSD measures announced in Canada's economic action plan.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Madam Minister, thank you for coming.
I'm looking at categories that are identified as early learning and child care in the 2007 federal budget. One of the categories refers to the multilateral agreement on early learning and child care: $350 million. That was the 2003 agreement under the Liberal government some time ago. But then in 2007, for child care spaces initiatives there was $250 million, which goes to the Canada social assistance transfer, but no reporting specifically, although the previous one did. So there's a total actual transfer of $600 million, not the $1.1 billion that I know the government claims.
But to continue, the category also lists things that I find rather interesting. On the universal child care benefit for $2.4 million, even a government website indicates that people are using this for anything but child care—for RESPs, family recreation, paying the bills, and so on—not to mention the fact that for those people who do need child care spaces, after they pay taxes they really don't have enough. So this is really not a child care program.
In addition to that, the next category is child care expenses through the child care expense deduction. This is a deduction, not direct funding of child care spaces.
The next one is even more curious. It's the Canada child tax credit, which is an income plan for children. It is not a child care program. Then it says total early learning and child care expending claimed by the Conservative government is $5.6 billion or $5.7 billion.
Out of all this, I'd like you to clear up something for me. It seems to me, from what I've seen here, with the exception of this $350 million, which went way back to 2003, and then the $250 million that your department put in for 2007, that there is no other direct transfer to provinces for child care spaces. Am I right? That's what the category shows in your budget of 2007, and I cannot consider the other categories I've just enunciated as having anything to do with child care spaces or early learning and child care at all.
I would like to thank Minister Finley and her staff for coming here today on short notice. It's very much appreciated.
I would like to point out that I believe this meeting was for supplementary estimates, and I haven't heard a question yet on supplementary estimates, but that must be a testament to you and your staff's good ability.
I'd also like to point out that I appreciate the seriousness and the compassion with which you conduct yourself on a daily basis. I really think the people of Canada appreciate a minister who takes her job seriously and is compassionate about the issues that Canadians see. So on behalf of the people here in Bruce, I would like to thank you for that.
I also appreciate the spirit in which you've put together your programs by actually talking to Canadians. I think a lot of the items we've seen in the budget through the economic action plan reflect the wishes of Canadians. Specifically, we've received numerous appreciative calls in our constituency office regarding the five-week extensions. As a person who used to work in the finance department of a company, the freezing of EI rates is definitely appreciated in the business community, as well as by the employees, because that comes directly off the paycheques of Canadians. There is no better stimulus than the freezing of EI rates. So on behalf of the people here in Bruce, I thank you again for your efforts.
I also know your staff is working very hard to put the wheels in motion, and so are the people in the field with Service Canada. We have a tremendous relationship with them, both in Goddard and Kitchener, and I know they're working extra hours. They've put more people in the field to work overtime to make sure no one gets left behind, and I really do commend you on those initiatives and those actions.
As a member of Parliament from Ontario, we've heard a lot about Ontario's fair share, and I just wondered, on the topic of EI accessibility, if you could address the so-called Ontario fair share argument that is currently being made. Some look at the numbers and say there's a lower percentage of people in Ontario eligible for EI and they suggest that it's somehow due to the unfair treatment of Ontario within the EI system. Minister, would you be prepared to clarify that issue today?
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Thank you very much. I appreciate the recognition for the staff and the officials who really are working very hard to make sure we get these programs out the door quickly, that we get the benefits to the people who need them as quickly as possible.
There has been a lot of talk about provincial disparity. As I mentioned earlier, we don't look at EI that way. What we do is on a regional basis. Until very, very recently, for example, Vancouver had about a 3% to 4% unemployment rate, whereas parts of northern British Columbia had a very high rate. They'd had different accessibility and different terms of benefits for EI.
Ontario's rates vary as well. In the last three months, 11 Ontario regions have experienced increases in their unemployment rate, and that has resulted in lower accessibility standards. In other words, they could get at it easier and have longer benefits.
One of the interesting things about Ontario is also that it has a much higher percentage of self-employed people, which is a great spirit of entrepreneurism. One of the challenges with that, though, and it's a risk of being self-employed--I've been there myself--is that you don't pay EI, and EI is, by definition, insurance. It's like house insurance. If you don't pay the premiums, you can't collect the benefits.
That being said, in this economic action plan, we are including opportunities for people who are self-employed to get the benefits that one would normally get under the part 2 portion of EI, which is training for a new position, getting skills that will help them transfer into another job in another sector where they could have jobs for a very long time. I think that's a very special part of this, and it's one of the reasons I'd like to see this budget pass quickly, so that we can have the authorization to go ahead and get these expansion programs out to the people who really need them.
:
We actually have four different programs that play to those people who have long-tenured employment, who are perhaps in a town where there's heavy reliance on a single industry or a single employer. Outside of HRSDC, there's our $1 billion community adjustment fund, which is to help the community diversify. But that can be coupled with the targeted initiative for older workers, which is designed to help the very people you're talking about get the new skills they may need.
As well, we have special targeted support, as you mentioned, for what we call long-tenured workers, people who may have graduated from high school at, say, 19, and have worked in one industry, with one employer, for the last 20 years. They may not have developed a lot of skills that are portable, and their jobs may be gone forever. Through that particular program, we're extending their EI benefits for up to two years if they go into training. We'd also want to make it possible, if they used their severance to pay for their own training, let's say at college, for their benefits to continue. That severance would not be used against their EI.
We believe that if we work with the municipalities, if we work with industry, we can help whole communities adjust.
You bring up the point about members of Parliament. A lot of us come to this royal House after the age of 50. Some have even become leaders of their party after the age of 50. So to say that people over 50 aren't capable of learning is very unfortunate, I think, and is an insult to anybody over 50. I personally have great faith in these people.
And yes, it has been said that there should be some changes to EI. It was brought up earlier that we haven't seen major reform with this budget. I did discuss that with Premier McGuinty. He has been a big advocate for major change. But perhaps I can share with you what he said when he was asked about a macro rehaul or retrofit of the EI system--that we don't have time to do that, so let's just make some temporary changes that stand to benefit folks who have lost their jobs, especially in Ontario.
And I agree with him on that. What we need to do is pass this budget. There are a lot of good things to help the unemployed, to prevent unemployment, to help people get going--I'm referring here to the extension of the work sharing program--and to help get people into jobs so that they won't be unemployed in the future. This is to help them and this is to help their families. I have great faith in these people, and I would really like your support to get this budget passed quickly so that we can deliver these benefits to those who really need it.