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Results: 1 - 15 of 342
View Sonia Sidhu Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you.
My next question is for the representative of Ahmadiyya community. We have an engaged and committed Ahmadiyya community here in Brampton. I commend their work across Canada in fighting hate. We have a vaccine clinic at Masjid Mubarak...raising funds for the community, and we are always grateful for their work.
However, Ms. Choudhry, another aspect of this study is focused on cyber-bullying, which is more frequently experienced by young Canadians. Are you aware of young members of your community being cyber-bullied for their religion?
Faakhra Choudhry
View Faakhra Choudhry Profile
Faakhra Choudhry
2021-06-22 11:56
Many times, with regard to cyber-bullying, those who are going through it keep it private. Many times, even parents.... It can be happening in the same household. Their child can be feeling so many types of emotions and going through so many breakdowns, and they have no idea because when you have a phone, a tablet or whatever you use, you can keep your life very, it seems, in categories: your online world, your impersonal world, your home life, your school life.
In my personal experience, I know that there are people who, when they post things, for example, on Twitter, will get a lot of backlash just because they might be Muslim or just because they might be Ahmadiyya Muslim—especially on Twitter. If you go on Facebook, if you go outside of just your friend group and you post on another forum, if you go on any other type of social media like Instagram, if you're posting on a public picture, there are many, many people who will reply back with hateful things. Oftentimes, it's the same people who are just going to the different social media accounts and going to different posts just to copy and paste their same hateful comments over and over again. They don't want to have a reasonable dialogue with you if you try to engage with them. All they want to do is spew their hate.
I've had that personal experience for sure, but I do believe that the extent of it is not understood by myself or even parents, teachers or whomever it may be because many times people just keep it inside or just accept it as a normal thing that happens online, which is one of the worst things. It shouldn't be accepted as normal.
Tom Littlewood
View Tom Littlewood Profile
Tom Littlewood
2021-06-11 13:18
Thanks, Barb.
Regarding COVID-19 and its effect on mental health, overdoses, self-harm and psychosis incidents have increased 50% with our youth clients. We serve about 300 clients a year currently, and that is about to double. Hospitalizations, because of this, cost $1,500 to $2,500 a day and up.
Anxiety and depression are widespread. These mental health issues paralyze young people, causing many to retreat and hide in their single-room occupancy, SRO suites, or basement suites.
The opioid crisis has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. We predict that the situation will only get worse, as there are thousands of young people in line to become the next wave of addiction to hit our streets.
Every year about 1,000 youth age out of care in British Columbia, and a further 1,000 hit the streets, running away from dysfunctional homes. Over 60% of these youths aging out of foster care will descend into entrenched addiction to numb their psychological pain.
However, there is a critical period between the ages of 15 and 25, when these young people usually ask for help. If trauma-informed therapy is provided to them for free and without a waiting list, up to 75% of these youth will respond and achieve success in school, work, recovery, housing and job-skills training. They can be diverted from the path towards homelessness, entrenched addiction, overdose and suicide and on towards lives they will enjoy living.
The initial effects of past trauma, which include physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse, poverty and intergenerational trauma experienced by our indigenous clients, are normally expressed, to begin with, as anxiety, depression, eating and sleeping disorders, and self-medicating behaviour.
Our therapeutic intervention of four months of trauma-informed counselling costs approximately $2,500. Once the youth descends into entrenched addiction, it costs the community millions of dollars when police services, first responders, hospitals, corrections system, etc., are factored in. This does not even begin to take into account what the addict has to steal, or the sex acts they have to perform in order to get the money to buy the drugs they need.
Harm prevention, specifically trauma-informed therapy, can divert a youth's path away from addiction and homelessness, which not only saves valuable lives but saves millions of dollars in costs to the community.
Trauma-informed recovery is a new idea, and it's still controversial. Rather than the 12-step abstinence recovery programs, which are not best practices with youth, especially regarding opioid addiction, trauma-informed recovery involves a doctor, a therapist and a client agreeing to a contract whereby the physician prescribes an opioid replacement for the client while the client is undergoing trauma counselling.
When working with a therapist, typically over a period of four months, the client first learns self-regulation techniques. This is followed by the counselling trauma work, to help youth gain insight into their past trauma.
Once the trauma work is complete, the client has no need to self-medicate for the psychological pain, and this is when the physician steps in to provide something like an opioid replacement of Suboxone to help them come down without the drug sickness.
This approach is new and controversial, but it is becoming the best-practice model for young people with opioid addiction. Using prescribed stimulants as a replacement for street drugs like crack or meth is also being explored.
The side effect of the opioid crisis and the overdose crisis is the growing number of permanent brain damage situations caused when someone is brought back using Narcan or Naloxone. Some youth brag about how many times they have recovered using Naloxone; however, as therapists we can see the gradual deterioration of cognitive function after multiple applications of Naloxone over multiple overdoses.
A practical harm prevention idea that you can take from this is a CERB forgiveness program for young people who engage in recovery, education, work or training for a year. The money is gone; it's not going to be recovered. These kids don't have this, but it will create an insurmountable obstacle for these young people and cause thousands to give up and go underground to the street, speeding up the path to addiction and homelessness. I have had a youth end their life by suicide when faced with $1,000 in transit fines, which come due when they are about to get their first driver's licence. Imagine the chaos we're going to find when thousands are asked to repay the thousands of dollars they received from CERB fraudulently.
In summary, our goal is to get ahead of the curve of both COVID-19 and the opioid crisis by employing harm-prevention strategies of trauma-informed therapy, training and recovery.
Thank you.
View Sonia Sidhu Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Before my time starts, I have a point of clarification. We need to clarify that there's never been a contract between CanSino and the Government of Canada. I believe it was suggested earlier that there was one. This is not correct.
My question is for the witnesses from Dan's Legacy.
As many young people are going back to school, or will be going back in the fall, we know that all levels of government are looking at how to support our return to normal. Where do you think the federal government can be most effective in supporting youth as we reopen, particularly youth in similar circumstances to those your organization supports?
Tom Littlewood
View Tom Littlewood Profile
Tom Littlewood
2021-06-11 13:53
As I mentioned, thousands of young people have gotten CERB fraudulently. There were websites that showed them how to do it and what to say. These kids are not self-regulated, so they responded to this in droves. If we keep that repayment program that's in place now, we're going to see...I think it was 48 million that went to high school students. That doesn't count the kids that are not in school or anything. We really need to look at that as a potential way to solve a problem, rather than creating a barrier.
This is going to affect thousands of young people, and we're not going to get the money back anyway. We could encourage them to engage in things that will help them, like going back to school, working, recovery, etc.
View Charlie Angus Profile
NDP (ON)
Thank you, Minister, for coming today.
I'd like to ask you right off the top, on what date did the cabinet begin to discuss the issues of the allegations of sexual violence against young people on Pornhub?
When did cabinet start to talk about the Pornhub issue?
View Steven Guilbeault Profile
Lib. (QC)
As you know, there is confidentiality around cabinet discussions, so I'm not at liberty to disclose this information.
View Corey Tochor Profile
CPC (SK)
Thank you very much.
Minister, the seniors I have been meeting with tell a different story. You brag about the increase of over $1,000 for last year, over the different buckets of money that you made one-time payments for, but the seniors I've been talking to read reports in the news about 40,000 15-year-olds getting approved for CERB at $2,000 a month—not yearly but monthly. They hear about over 92,000 16-year-olds who have been approved and about 17-year-olds living at home.
There were 184,000 kids getting CERB last year. Do you think that's fair?
View Deb Schulte Profile
Lib. (ON)
One of the things our government will not do is pit one group against another. We made sure not only that CERB was there for youth who could not work and who were potentially unable to get the income they needed for their studies and to continue on with their education but also that seniors were able to access CERB. Even if they had their pensions, their CPP and OAS, they could still qualify for CERB as long as they had a loss of employment income because of the COVID pandemic or because they had to stay home because they were isolating because of risk factors.
View Corey Tochor Profile
CPC (SK)
Minister, with respect, you should be ashamed of the decisions in this budget. You're saying we're pitting one against the other, but these are the decisions the Liberals made. We've had hundreds of thousands of kids living at home getting approved for emergency relief, while seniors have gotten a pittance, an increase of just over $1,000 for the year over all the programs.
I shudder to think of what you're hearing from the seniors you've been talking to. What I'm hearing is that you are pitting one segment against the other.
View Deb Schulte Profile
Lib. (ON)
I think it's really unfortunate that the seniors you're talking to have had their information twisted so that they are basically saying the youth who have lost their jobs don't deserve to be supported.
Listen, I'm the minister for seniors and not the minister for youth, but I can tell you from the youth that I know in my community that it has been very tough on them. They would normally be able to have a summer job at a local restaurant or a carnival. Normally, they would be working in the service industry, which has really shut down, and they don't have the ability now to earn the funds they need to be able to carry on with their education. There may be some who accessed it who shouldn't have, and that will be determined in time through the CRA.
Right now, we were there to support youth. We were there to support seniors, Canadians and businesses, and I'm proud that we were there to support them. That's helped us get through—
View Corey Tochor Profile
CPC (SK)
If you're wondering where they're getting their information from. I'll just read this quickly. It's from the National Post, a pretty reputable national news outlet. It says:
The documents show that 40,630 15-years-olds were approved for the benefit. The government paid out $81.2 million for that group. There were 92,784 16-year-olds approved, receiving nearly $186 million, and 184,576 17-year-olds received $369 million.
That's where they're getting their news from or information, as you call it.
It's concerning. It's concerning that we would not help seniors out during this crisis at the same level as we were helping out students living at home.
I'm going to switch gears just briefly on the dollar amounts you talked about, the $5 billion here and the $10 billion there that the Liberals like to gloat about. It's all printed money. It's all money that is printed, and when regimes across the world have tried to print money to get out of their fiscal crisis, it has ended poorly for society.
I am wondering if you think seniors are worried about inflation right now.
View Deb Schulte Profile
Lib. (ON)
I think everybody's worried about inflation, but more than anything people are worried about getting through the pandemic, and they need supports to do that.
I want to go back. When I was young, I needed a job to help pay for my family. We were not well off, and we all ended up working. I was working at 15. There are a lot of young people in this country who are supporting themselves, their families and their education. You might say 15 is a little early to be supporting your education, but you need a lot of funds to live, to pay for your food and clothes. These are things that families sometimes need to rely on their younger teenagers to help with.
Cory, it's really unfortunate that you're making a judgment call that all youth are somehow in a position to have excess. That is not true and I think it's unfortunate. Maybe it's because of a different upbringing, but I can tell you that I really appreciated my job. If I had lost it when I was 15, it would have made things very difficult for me. I know that is the story of young people across the country.
Let's go back to seniors, because we are not doing one versus the other. Seniors were able to access the same supports as youth and other Canadians. If they worked, lost their income and were making over $5,000 a year, they would have been able to access benefits as well.
It is important that we are fair and are treating everybody well.
Simon Telles
View Simon Telles Profile
Simon Telles
2021-05-18 14:36
Thank you very much.
I would like to thank all the members of the committee for inviting our organization to appear today. It is truly a pleasure for me to be with you. This is the first opportunity for our organization to be heard before you. I look forward to the opportunity to interact with you.
I would like to introduce myself. I am Simon Telles, president of Force Jeunesse. I have been involved with the organization for over four years. Coming out of a crisis like the one we've been experiencing for a little over a year, it's especially important to get involved.
Force Jeunesse is a nonprofit organization that was founded in the early 2000s to improve working conditions for young people, but the organization's mission has expanded greatly over time. It is made up of young volunteers, mainly between 18 and 35 years old, who come from different backgrounds. Some are young professionals in the health and education fields and others are students. In short, Force Jeunesse is a coalition of young volunteers who want to get involved and present concrete proposals to improve public policy.
Our mission hinges on three main axes: defending the rights and interests of youth, ensuring a certain intergenerational equity in public policy, and promoting youth engagement and the place of youth in decision-making spheres.
On a daily basis, we hear a lot of prejudice expressed about young people. In my experience, however, our youth are quite supportive, determined, and engaged.
It is true that, coming out of the COVID-19 crisis, our youth are weakened. Therefore, it is important to show special concern for them in all policy and program decisions put forward. One need only think of the very significant job losses experienced by young people, who often work in more precarious fields. In addition, compared to the rest of the population, youth have much more worrisome mental health indicators and higher rates of psychological distress. In short, young people already face many barriers in their daily lives, and these are even higher for minority youth. The crisis we just went through only accentuates these inequalities.
We are not experts on all the areas addressed in the federal budget, but we looked at it through the lens of intergenerational equity. There were four items that particularly resonated with us, and those are what I'm going to talk about today. They are mental health, federal health transfers, the environment and climate change, and finally housing.
Let's start with mental health.
As I mentioned in the introduction, young people have been particularly affected. So we are pleased to see that the budget has provided $100 million over three years for those most affected by COVID-19, including youth. The challenge now will be to get that money on the ground quickly and to increase access to psychological health care for young people, because that's what we're finding to be most lacking right now.
What we are concerned about is that youth group insurance, whether for students or workers, determines whether or not a young person has access to mental health care. For us, this situation is not acceptable. We must find solutions that will guarantee all young Canadians access to mental health care.
Many proposals are possible, but the one we favour is universal access to psychotherapy. In Quebec, we already have access to universal drug coverage. In Canada, we have access to universal health care almost everywhere. For us, it would be completely consistent and logical for mental health care to also be covered for all Quebeckers and all Canadians.
The second topic that is of great concern to us is the issue of federal health transfers.
This topic has been the subject of much discussion in the news over the past few months. We note that across the country, the population is aging and health care costs are rising faster than other government spending and the economy. In addition, the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the situation and exposed the vulnerabilities of our health care system. Additional investments in health transfers are therefore urgently needed.
We note that health care spending is placing increasing pressure on provincial public finances. The federal government's share of funding for the system is declining, because the growth in federal transfers is not keeping pace with the growth in provincial health spending. We are therefore disappointed that the budget did not provide for an increase in health transfers, even though this is a unanimous demand from all provinces. There are few issues that bring us together to this extent, but this is one of them.
This is a real issue of intergenerational equity. You might think that young people are less concerned about health because, statistically, they have fewer health problems, but it's quite the opposite. If we don't take steps now to ensure that the health care system is adequately funded, it is our generation that will be faced with agonizing choices later on. Access to health care is one of the foundations of our social model.
The other topic I'm happy to talk about is the environment and fighting climate change.
When young people are asked what issues matter most to them, the environment and fighting climate change often come out on top. That really resonates with me. So we're very pleased to see that in the federal budget, a significant amount of funding has been dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There is a $5 billion investment over seven years. This is a step in the right direction.
That said, we believe even more needs to be done, particularly to reduce greenhouse gases, but more importantly to put in place eco-tax measures that will truly change consumer behaviour. In our view, we need to subject pollution to consequences, largely financial, and ensure greater accountability of stakeholders and polluters, whether consumers, citizens or businesses.
Finally, the last topic I would like to address with you in a general way is the issue of housing.
We are facing a real shortage of affordable housing just about everywhere in Quebec, and this phenomenon is not limited to the big cities as one might think. It affects young people in the job market particularly, because they generally have a slightly lower income at the beginning of their career. We find that the portion of their budget that goes to housing is continually increasing, which impacts other aspects of their lives and other equally basic needs.
We believe that the overheated housing market is jeopardizing the ability to afford home ownership. Young people can no longer afford home ownership, or they have to wait much longer than their parents to do so. So it's also an issue of intergenerational equity.
We find it interesting that the government, in its budget, has proposed a 1% tax to reduce foreign speculation in the market. On the other hand, for us, this is not the crux of the issue. It is a measure, but it is not the most important one. What the government should be doing is building more affordable housing, helping young people get into home ownership through tax credits and subsidies, directly assisting young people who are most in need and don't have enough income to adequately house themselves, and most importantly, rethinking programs to make sure they meet the objectives.
One example I can give you is the famous HBP, the Home Buyers' Plan, which allows young people to withdraw a certain amount from their RRSPs as a down payment for their first home. Intuitively, we tend to think that this is an interesting measure, but most young people have not yet accumulated enough money in their RRSPs. So it is a measure that is available, but it only helps a small portion of the population. We thus need to find direct ways to make housing more accessible for all young people.
Of course, in its strategy, the government really needs to ask whether every person who needs housing assistance is actually receiving assistance. What we see in the budget right now is that there are several blind spots, and we think there should be more help.
There also needs to be more federal collaboration, in our view, with provincial and municipal governments to ensure that efforts are coordinated, to avoid duplication, and to ensure that no one is left behind.
In conclusion, we find it very interesting that the government is assessing the intergenerational impact of each of the measures in the budget. For us, this is a very inspiring exercise, because it makes us aware of the impact of our decisions on future generations. Provinces and municipalities should even take a similar approach.
That said, to make the exercise even more interesting, rather than simply identifying the target population, i.e., whether the measure is aimed at youth or seniors, we should ask what the real impact of the measures put in place is on intergenerational equity. We believe that this would allow us to go even further and implement more structuring and sustainable measures.
I'll close by saying that we young people want to contribute to the work of commissions, committees, and decision-making entities in general. Please feel free to consult with us in advance of the various programs. It will always be our pleasure to contribute to the work of the committee.
Thank you for listening. I remain available, should you have more specific questions.
View Julie Dzerowicz Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much.
Thanks so much for being here with us again. I hope you don't have to come back, because then we will have been doing things to satisfy the industry.
I'm going to go to Mr. Telles.
Thank you for your presentation.
I don't speak French very well, so I'll speak to you in English.
I want to say thank you for being here. I have a nephew in university right now, and I follow his progress all the time. I want to say a huge thanks to you and, through you, to all youth for everything you do. I know it's the youth who step up in our coffee shops and who step up to help us in a lot of the short-term and more contractual jobs that are in our society, and I just want to say a huge thanks to you.
In our budget, we've put an additional $5.7 billion. There's a very deliberate desire to make sure our youth are not going to be the lost generation. Mr. Telles, it's really important if you could let us know if the measures we've put in here are actually helpful or a complete miss.
For us, we have increased the threshold of when you actually have to start repaying the federal student loans to $40,000. I've been told this is a game-changer. Can you let me know whether this is actually helpful to youth?
We've also doubled the Canada student grants, so that's an average addition of around $2,600. Is that helpful? Also, we've continued to suspend the interest on the federal student loans until March 2023. Is that helpful? Last, we've put a lot of money into making sure we have a lot of job opportunities available for youth. Is that helpful? In my own riding, I have only 12 square kilometres, but I have 400 jobs available for youth right now. Is that helpful?
Perhaps you could address those, and then I'd like to talk to you about climate change.
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