Good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to be here today to appear before the standing committee to answer questions about the main estimates and to speak to you about the work of the labour program.
The labour program works with federally regulated employees, unions, and workers, as well as provincial and territorial ministers of labour, to promote safe, healthy, and productive workplaces across the country.
[Translation]
Our mandate includes enforcing the Canada Labour Code, which covers industrial relations, occupational health and safety standards and employment standards.
[English]
We also negotiate and implement labour cooperation agreements with Canada's free trade partners, and represent Canada in multilateral organizations dealing with labour issues, including the International Labour Organization.
[Translation]
Our government strives, at all times, to balance the interests of workers and employers and promote safe, health and productive workplaces for all Canadians.
[English]
Please excuse my French. I have only been learning it for about eight weeks, but I'm giving it the college try.
The last time I was here, I was actually with and . This committee received some information about the Helping Families in Need Act, which provides financial relief and job protection to working parents who must take time off from their jobs to either take care of a critically ill child or deal with the trauma of a missing or murdered child.
This legislation meant a lot to me. I am very pleased to see that our government has strengthened the legislation further by enhancing access to employment insurance sickness benefits for claimants who receive the “parents of critically ill children” and compassionate care benefits.
[Translation]
Now, as Minister of Labour, I am continuing our government's efforts to improve the well-being of Canadian workers and employers across the country.
[English]
I'm proud to say that, under the leadership of this government, the labour program has an excellent track record. In many areas we are exceeding our targets.
Our government is currently pursuing the most ambitious trade expansion plan in our country's history. In less than seven years, Canada has concluded free trade agreements in nine countries and is negotiating with 30 more. Just recently, we announced free trade agreements with South Korea and Honduras. We are creating jobs and opportunities for Canadian workers and exporters by deepening trade with Asian and South American markets, which are key economic priorities for our Conservative government. I would like to assure all members here that we are firmly committed to ensuring that all agreements signed by Canada are in the best interest of hard-working Canadians.
As Minister of Labour, I am happy to say that while we're working hard to advance our historic trade agenda, our government is ensuring that international labour rights and obligations are respected. We continue to demonstrate on the international stage that a competitive economy includes a safe, healthy, and productive workplace. That is why the labour program is advancing negotiations on several labour cooperation agreements alongside these free trade agreements, committing Canada and our partners to maintaining international labour standards for all workers.
Canada currently has labour agreements with the United States and Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Colombia, Jordan, Panama, and Honduras. Labour cooperation agreements support our free trade agenda and defend Canada's competitive position by creating a mutual respect on labour rights and seeking to ensure that our trade partners do not gain any unfair trade advantage by not effectively enforcing their own labour laws.
Our government is pleased to work with our partner countries to ensure mutual prosperity within the region and achieve greater levels of international cooperation on labour issues.
Canadians have told us, time and time again, that what they want most of all are jobs, growth, and economic prosperity. These labour agreements contribute to this goal by creating a level playing field for Canadian businesses while expanding our markets and creating good, well-paying jobs.
As an orthopedic surgeon—a pediatric one at that—I'd also like to emphasize that our government is committed to protecting child rights and eliminating child labour around the world. This is why the labour program negotiates commitments to abolish child labour and eliminate forced and compulsory labour in its labour cooperation agreements.
In addition, the labour funding program supports technical assistance projects to help Canada's free trade agreement partners meet these commitments, including through strengthening labour administration and labour inspections.
[Translation]
I am particularly pleased about our performance in industrial relations.
[English]
The labour program plays a significant role behind the scenes helping employers and unions build and maintain cooperative relationships, thereby contributing to Canada's continued economic prosperity. We have mediators and conciliation officers who help at every stage of the collective bargaining process, even before formal bargaining begins. In 2012-13, with the help of our government, 94% of all disputes were settled without a work stoppage. This level of success has been a consistent pattern for the past five years.
[Translation]
We also have labour standards officers who ensure that employees working in federally regulated workplaces are protected.
[English]
As I just said, we also have labour standards officers who ensure that employees working in federally regulated spaces are protected.
Mr. Chairman, our government believes that all Canadians have the right to work in a safe and healthy environment. To make sure workplaces are safe, the labour program conducts proactive inspections, investigates complaints, and raises awareness about workplace safety laws and best practices. We're seeing excellent results. Over the period of 2007 to 2011, the number of disabling injuries has decreased by 22% for all federally regulated sectors.
As stated in the most recent budget, our government is firmly committed to delivering lower taxes, less red tape, and a balanced budget by 2015. That is why we will continue to exercise fiscal restraint while maintaining the highest level of service to Canadians. We are implementing cost-saving measures to modernize the labour program, to cut red tape, as I said, and renew our operations and program delivery.
We are modernizing our core business and enhancing service delivery. By way of example, we received an additional $1.4 million in operating funds because of these efforts for the wage earner protection program, which provides financial support to workers who lose wages when their employers go bankrupt.
[Translation]
This additional funding and our partnership with Service Canada are helping us deliver benefits to applicants more quickly.
[English]
This additional funding and our partnership with Service Canada are helping us deliver benefits to applicants more quickly. The labour program continues to replace its paper-based services with electronic tools to further reduce red tape and administrative burdens on small businesses, while making it easier for employers to comply with regulations.
This has been particularly useful for employers submitting their required reporting on health and safety as well as employment equity.
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, we in the labour program never forget that our government is focused on helping create the conditions for continued economic prosperity, and we're doing our part, striving to balance the interests between workers, employers, and the Canadian public at all times. A safe, healthy, and collaborative as well as productive workplace are part of our winning formula for economic growth and a better standard of living for all Canadians.
For me and I think for everyone at the labour program, our goal is to make sure we have safe, productive workplaces and to make sure that every Canadian working in a federally regulated space goes to work healthy and happy and returns home to their families exactly the same way at the end of the day.
Thank you very much and I look forward to your questions.
:
Thank you very much, Mr. Armstrong. I appreciate the question.
The labour program plays a very important part in fostering Canada's prosperity, and economic action plan 2014 was obviously a component part of that. It aims to achieve a fair, safe, and productive workplace through an efficient regulatory framework.
Effective labour relations and laws and policies, particularly in the area of occupational health and safety, help businesses succeed. Economic action plan 2014 showed that Canada has one of the best job creation records of the G-7 countries since the recession.
The federally regulated sector of employers and employees plays a vital role in this by generating economic activity and providing, quite frankly, the critical infrastructure for the Canadian economy as well as some of the essential services for our national economy. The productivity of the federal sector needs to be stable for those things to be achieved. We know, whether in the case of a port or of our national rail service, that making sure we can move goods and services across the country in a safe and stable manner means that the Canadian economy will be able to move forward.
Under part I of the Canada Labour Code, which establishes the framework for labour management relations to conduct collective bargaining—for which, as I mentioned in my opening statement, I think we have an excellent track record, with 94% of disputes being settled by mediation or otherwise—the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service aims to make labour relationships cooperative and productive, so that we have a stable environment. It has offered, through preventative mediation program services, which were expanded in budget 2011, the capacity for that stability, or a safe and healthy workplace, so that we have more productive employees who are able to contribute to the economic growth of the country.
Workplace accidents and injuries obviously have been declining because of the work that has taken place under the labour program, working with employers and employees. Fewer injuries mean a more productive workplace, which means a forward movement with respect to the Canadian economy.
We also play a role with respect to strengthening our trade relationships. As I mentioned in my opening statements, the labour cooperation agreements that we have with numerous countries facilitate and aid our expansion of our trade agenda as a country, and that can only contribute to the economic wealth of our country and the prosperity of Canadians.
:
Thank you very much for the question. I appreciate it. As an orthopedic surgeon myself, I have to say that the health and safety components in the workplace are something I remain very focused on. Making sure that Canadians who go to work healthy return healthy is very important.
Our health and safety officers—individuals who are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with respect to issues that employees may be concerned about—do outstanding and dedicated work. These are individuals who understand the workplaces they are working in and work diligently with the employers and employees to make the environments that these workers are in even safer.
Our work, as mentioned, is paying off. Over the last 12 years, between 2000 and 2012, there's been a 30% decline in the rate of disabling injuries and fatalities for federally regulated workplaces. This is something that Canadians and our program should be very proud of.
Specifically with respect to items in the workplace, items that the labour program focuses on, one thing I will point out to individuals of the committee, and also to Canadians in general, is the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. I think it's an unknown gem, a great centre established in 1978 that promotes well-being and works with Canadians providing information, training, education, and management systems to support health, safety, and wellness in the workplace.
Kin Choi, our ADM, is the chair of that centre. It does outstanding work and I think has been truly the big contributor to making sure workplaces are safe across the country. A lot of its services are free, and I encourage all Canadians to access it so they can create a safer workplace.
:
To be clear for all members of the committee, the labour program has a very robust international program. So I would think—not to direct our Chair, but so that we're all very clear—the labour cooperation agreements that we have negotiated with eight countries, and we are working with 30 additional countries, are an essential part of our free trade agenda and what we're doing. It is an essential part of the labour program so it is, I would think, within our domain.
To the point that you asked, what do we include with respect to what we're moving forward with is a commitment to making sure under the International Labour Organization's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the right to free association, the right to collective bargaining, the abolition of child labour, the elimination of forced or compulsory labour, as well as the elimination of discrimination. These are essential components to our labour cooperation agreements that are part of our free trade agenda, the most ambitious trade agenda expansion in our country's history, and are essential component parts. We want Canadians to be on a level playing field, but we also want the countries we're working with to make sure they're increasing and improving their standards if needed. Our labour program works with those countries, with specific organizations, to improve their labour standards.
By way of example, in Honduras and Panama we have an outstanding program of building labour law compliance, making sure their labour standards are improving. In Jordan, we are promoting fundamental principles and rights to work, again making sure that the employees are empowered and understand that they have a right to work and what those rights include, so they are not put at risk.
With respect to the specific number, I'll ask the deputy to make a comment. Then if you have other questions, I'll be happy to take them.
:
I call the meeting back to order.
Before we move on to our next set of witnesses regarding the labour market development agreements, we have one piece of business I'd like to take care of, and that is the motions required as a result of the minister's visit. I will just run through them as quickly as I can, so bear with me, committee members.
Pursuant to Standing Order 81(4) the main estimates for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015, were deemed referred to several standing committees of the House as follows...and it goes through the narrative that we had the minister here today.
I'd like to call the following votes by committee members.
CANADIAN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS BOARD
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Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$11,823,711
(Vote 1 agreed to)
CANADA MORTGAGE AND HOUSING CORPORATION
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Vote 1—To reimburse Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation for the amounts of loans..........$2,097,353,000
(Vote 1 agreed to)
CANADIAN CENTRE FOR OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
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Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$3,978,250
(Vote 1 agreed to)
EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
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Vote 1—Operating expenditures and..........$571,067,134
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Vote 5—The grants listed in the Estimates and contributions..........$1,227,675,995
(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to)
The Chair: Shall I report the main estimates 2014-15 to the House?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
The Chair: Thank you very much, committee members, for moving through that quickly.
Now we move on to the second hour of our meeting. It actually won't be quite an hour because, witnesses, we have to do some committee business for the last 15 minutes, so it will be about a 45-minute session. This is for the study of our renewal of the labour market development agreements, the LMDAs.
We are pleased to be joined by Ms. Monique Moreau, director of national affairs of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, who is with us here. Ms. Cammie Peirce, national representative from the national office of Unifor, is with us by video conference.
Each of you will have a presentation time of up to 10 minutes, so let's begin with Ms. Moreau for 10 minutes.
As many of the members know, CFIB is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization representing more than 109,000 small and medium-sized businesses across Canada that collectively employ more than 1.25 million Canadians and account for $75 billion, or nearly half of Canada's GDP.
Our members represent all sectors of the economy and are found in every region of the country. Addressing issues of importance to them can have a widespread impact on job creation and the economy. CFIB's position on issues is based on feedback from our members, gathered through a variety of surveys. We then pass those results on to you and decision-makers like you so that you can incorporate the perspective of smaller companies into your decisions.
You should have a slide presentation in front of you that I'd like to walk you through over the next few minutes.
Given their clout in Canada's economy, getting the small business perspective on how their businesses are doing can help us understand where the economy is going.
Slide 3 indicates an excerpt of April's Business Barometer, which is produced monthly to track the business expectations of Canada's small business community. The latest barometer from April 2014 shows some improvement, with the index rising to 65.7%. An index level of between 65% and 70% usually means that the economy is growing at its potential. So far, business operating conditions in 2014 have been stable, but not overly robust. We're seeing some improvements in the prairie provinces, but only 37% of business owners see their businesses as being in good shape, one of the lowest readings we've had since mid-2010. So the economy is still showing some sluggishness.
To help us get through this sluggish economy, we believe that governments need to address the issues of greatest concern to small businesses so that they, in turn, can focus their attention on hiring staff, growing their business, and thereby growing the economy.
As you can see on slide 4, although small business owners remain concerned with the total tax burden and the impact of government regulations and paper burden on their businesses, employment insurance and the shortage of qualified labour remain priority issues for nearly half of our business members.
The shortage of qualified labour is an issue because of our job vacancy rates. As you see on slide 5, Canada's job vacancy rates remained stable in the fourth quarter of 2013. Private sector employers reported that 2.5% of jobs were vacant in the last quarter, October to December—no change from the quarter before. However, when you consider these vacancies by size of business, smaller businesses have the highest average of unfilled job rates. Firms with fewer than 19 employees have vacancy rates averaging 4.6% in the last quarter.
When you break down vacancies by skill level, as shown on slide 6, we see that over half of the jobs small businesses hire for are those that require on-the-job training. Our research shows that SMEs invest $18 billion a year in training. Much of this is invested in Canadians who come to work in small businesses, often for the first time.
When broken down by cost, you see the investment by type of employee on slide 7. It's particularly substantial when training a new hire with no previous experience. Part of the reason training costs so much is not because they're sending these new hires off to training courses, but rather because of the time spent either by the owner or another employee training, in the business, in an on-the-job, informal way.
The committee may be interested to know that we are in the process of updating this data and plan on surveying our membership on this issue later this year.
You've seen the investment that small businesses make in the training of their employees. What can government do to help small businesses continue to train and then hire individuals? We asked our members, and overwhelmingly respondents indicated that training tax credits, a reduced tax burden, and a break from EI payments during the training period were deemed to be the most useful. Conversely, new taxes on employers, to be used for training, was very unpopular, as you see on slide 8.
As this committee considers the substantial funding available for training Canadians to return to the workforce—nearly $2 billion—CFIB strongly suggests that you keep the small business owner in mind. SMEs pay over half of the EI premium and should have some say in how this training money is spent.
To that end, we ask the committee to consider the following recommendation as outlined on slide 9. Ensure that any funds administered through LMDAs recognize the informal, on-the-job training that SMEs conduct across the country. Employers are already involved in the development and training of employees, but government funding needs to recognize this type of training.
It also needs to recognize the realities of running a small business. Any training opportunities or programs created should be easily administered, low cost, and have little red tape. There is a lot of money at play in the LMDAs. Some options of spending it in a way that focuses on employers would be to introduce an EI training credit, renew the EI hiring credit, or provide an EI holiday for some small businesses.
Lastly, and importantly, there needs to be a public accounting of how the LMDA funds are used. Part of this money is paid for by employers, and an accounting of how this money is spent is critical for taxpayers.
This concludes my presentation and I look forward to your questions.
Unifor appreciates the invitation to appear before the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, in view of its labour market development agreement study.
We want to point out the important role that LMDA funds have played in assisting unemployed workers train for and find new employment. A tracking study of laid-off workers conducted by a McMaster University researcher documented the improved outcomes for laid-off workers who had access to training programs.
Training programs will not be successful if people who need the assistance cannot access the program. To qualify for EI part II tuition and training benefits, the unemployed worker must qualify for benefits under EI part I. However, less than four in 10 unemployed Canadians are receiving EI benefits at any given moment. This shrinking number is, in part, a result of the increase in precarious contract, temporary, and part-time employment.
Improving access to EI part I benefits will increase unemployed workers' opportunity for retraining, and ultimately, for more stable and secure employment. We support increasing access to all EI benefits by reducing the qualifying hours to 360 hours in all regions of Canada.
Unifor wants to emphasize the related need to extend EI part I benefits when a worker is in an approved EI part II program. Since it is a burden on the LMDA budgets, provinces provide only a small living allowance, if they provide anything at all. As well, it's typically family-tested, as if the allowance were a form of social assistance. Unlike social assistance, EI is not financed from public taxes. It is a social insurance program funded by weekly payroll premiums paid by workers and their employers.
EI provides income replacement for individuals, so family-income testing is not appropriate. During layoffs and closures, Unifor, actually former CAW members, usually women, were assessed very low income allowances, as low as $35 and in some cases nothing at all, because of their spouse's income. During the 1980s, workers were able to get EI—it was UI at that time—income benefits for up to two years if they were in approved training.
The lack of basic skills also represents a barrier to retraining programs, and ultimately, to sustainable employment. The extent of the problem was evident when CAW initiated adjustment programs for tens of thousands who had lost their jobs during the mass layoffs and closures that followed the 2008 economic crisis. As a result of our experience, we fought hard to ensure that Ontario's second career program included extended upgrading and literacy supports so that such workers had the prerequisites for college-level programs. Ministry staff said that they were surprised by how widespread the need for literacy and upgrading was in Ontario. Studies of the Canadian labour market as a whole have drawn similar conclusions.
The federal government is spending less than half of the maximum set out by the EI Act on the LMDAs. LMDA funding should be increased not only to address literacy and basic skills needs but also to include more specialized training programs that will lead to permanent full-time employment with decent wages. An LMDA funding increase would be financed through EI premiums paid by employers and employee premiums and not through government general revenues. Due to the current surplus, it would not be necessary to increase the premiums.
The success of training programs rests on providing workers with the skills required by employers as well as generic skills that provide workers with greater mobility in the labour market. Better collaboration is needed between stakeholders to address the labour market issues such as unemployment, training, and the rise of precarious work. A permanent federal labour market partners forum should be established to contribute to the successful training initiatives and to identify other labour market measures that are needed as part of a new Canadian job strategy. This strategy should stimulate the creation and maintenance of good quality jobs and not be limited to those in construction and resource sectors.
Provinces or territories without a labour market forum should be required to establish a forum with one of its responsibilities being an annual review and advice on how the LMDA and LMA spending priorities are made. Newfoundland and Labrador has established its own labour market committee, and the Forum of Labour Market Ministers report “Building Skills Together” highlights the Quebec labour market council.
In summary, our recommendations are to increase access to all EI benefits by reducing qualifying hours to 360 hours in all regions of Canada. This will allow more unemployed workers the opportunity to acquire the skills they need to find new employment.
We recommend extending EI part I income benefits for the duration of approved training under EI part II. Unemployed workers should have the opportunity to access training programs and still be able to provide for their children, buy groceries, and pay their rent.
We recommend expanding and insuring that EI part II funds include basic skills and prerequisites to training programs, as well as more specialized programs that will lead to permanent full-time employment.
We recommend increasing the LMDA funding to provide for these expanded programs. LMDA benefits are funded through EI premiums paid by employees and employers and would have no effect on the government's budget.
We recommend establishing permanent federal, provincial, and territorial labour market partners forums, and these forums would bring together the stakeholders, which are employers, labour, government, and educators, to shape and guide the LMDA program and a Canadian job strategy towards improving our workforce's skills and the quality of their employment opportunities.
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this consultation.
Thank you to both the witnesses.
I guess I have a bit of a preamble. I think it's important to not look at the LMDA as being the catch-all for all our issues around employment. I think we need to really try to focus a little bit, and I do worry about that.
I just went on to the Canada Benefits website. It's a fantastic website. If you go to it, you can see that there are opportunities through the youth employment strategy program, through targeted initiatives for older workers, through the LMA, through ASETS, and through some programs that the provinces run. I guess I just don't believe that the function of the LMDA is to be a catch-all.
I also think we need to remember the goals. People talk about this EI surplus and I think we have to remember that the goal is that this is balanced over seven years. We had a number of years where there was a significant deficit in the last while, so again, to talk about it as a surplus I think is a bit of a red herring because we know the goal is over seven years.
I'm going to focus in, first of all, on the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. I was on the Red Tape Reduction Commission. Hopefully that's going to go lower and lower because I think there was some nice work done there. I see on page 4 it's down a little bit, I hope.
As to the shortage of qualified labour, I want to dig into that because that's been a bit of a debate in the House. Is there a shortage; is there not a shortage? The minister regularly and often says there's not a general shortage, but we certainly have shortages in specific sectors and in specific regions. Could you talk a little bit more about that and how the LMDA, especially as it might relate to mobility, might be able to support...?