HUMA Committee Report

Employability Study – Supplementary Opinion from the NDP

The NDP commends the committee members and staff for their commitment to hear a wide range of expertise and opinion in determining the best ways forward to address employability issues in Canada. The unanimously approved main text of the report contains many progressive recommendations requiring response and action from the government. However, there are several significant gaps that are addressed in this supplementary report, for which we respectfully request a formal government response.

The Purpose of Enhancing Employability

A subtle yet potent theme of this study was how to match the skills and training of Canadians to the needs of employers and the economy. We are disappointed that the main text of the report does not recognize that the economy must work for the maximum benefit of workers, as well as the other way around. As long as economic growth is considered an end in itself, and the labour force a measurable commodity, government measures necessary to build a healthy economy and a strong society will remain elusive.

First and foremost, the NDP recognizes and affirms that a primary objective of our economy – must be to ensure secure, rewarding, well-paying jobs for all Canadians. It follows that federal policy on employability must seek to minimize precarious, non-voluntary part-time, and low-paying employment; to address underemployment and low-wage barriers to better jobs; to ensure that all motivated and qualified Canadians have equitable access to education and training; to ensure full labour rights; and to maximize full workforce participation for all capable, working-age Canadians.

Recommendation NDP-1: The NDP recommends that the government formally recognize that a primary objective of the economy is to ensure secure, rewarding, well-paying jobs for all Canadians.

Precarious employment and working poverty

Several witnesses testified that Canada’s job statistics mask a troubling increase in precarious, part-time and low-wage employment, and a resulting rise in the number of working poor. The committee heard that some 35% of the workforce and 40% of women are currently in precarious and contingent work, such as temporary, part-time and contract jobs with no benefits and little chance of progression.[1]

Many witnesses spoke of the barriers to skills training, education, and well-paying employment; however, the main text of the report pointedly omits mention of these barriers. Among them are the deficiency of social programs – income supports, affordable child care, transportation supports, and access to literacy and learning opportunities, among others – and what one witness termed a “low-wage wall behind which hundreds of thousands of workers are trapped in poorly-paying jobs with few if any benefits. These kinds of jobs offer almost no opportunities for education, training or advancement and even act as barriers to those objectives.” [2]

No one in Canada should be forced to live in poverty, including and especially those who work full-time year-round. Regrettably, this fundamental principle of Canadian society was not included in the main text of the report, despite the testimony from one witness that “almost one in three children living in poverty now in Canada has at least one family member who is working full-time for the full year.”[3]

Recommendation NDP-2: The NDP recommends that the government commit to reducing non-voluntary instances of precarious employment and to ensuring that no full-time, year-round worker in Canada lives below the poverty line, and that the government work with employers and other stakeholders to develop a poverty-reduction strategy to realize this commitment. This strategy should necessarily include reversing the untargeted corporate tax cuts from the 2007 economic update and instead making targeted investments for the benefit of everyday Canadians.

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Comprehensive job and skills strategy required

The NDP is pleased that the committee recommends necessary improvements to the Working Income Tax Benefit. However, the employability study clearly found that a far more comprehensive strategy is required – including employers, labour, and the education / training sector[4] – to create quality jobs and a flexible, competitive workforce.

The committee heard that any inefficiencies in matching employers’ needs with skilled labour are not simply a skills shortage,[5] but rather a more complex condition that requires reversing long-standing government and employer attitude and practice:

“We reject the notion that there's a labour shortage per se, or that too few workers are employable. In fact, we think we're facing an erosion of modest income and well-paying jobs, under-investment in training and education on the part of government and employers, systemic non-recognition of prior learning and internationally trained credentials, employer reticence to accommodate workers with disabilities and injured workers, inadequate public resources to address literacy issues for Canadian-born and newcomer workers, plus inadequate adjustment programs.” – Pam Frache, Ontario Federation of Labour, 27 Oct 2006

The committee heard repeatedly from national sector councils and associations that a concerted effort is required to prevent critical shortages of key professionals and to ensure an efficient labour market that matches education and training with demand for specific skills and knowledge – this, at a time when the federal government is short-sightedly downloading training to the provinces with no conditions or coordination.

Recommendation NDP-3: The NDP recommends that the government develop a pan-Canadian job and skills training strategy that engages and requires the participation of employers, labour, and the education / training sector, with a view to maximize workforce participation for all capable, working-age Canadians and ensure an efficient labour force matching skills supply with demand.

Literacy

We are pleased that the committee recommends the equivalent of a pan-Canadian strategy on literacy and lifelong learning, in particular setting concrete targets for raising Canada’s literacy rates and implementing a ten-year literacy strategy, as first proposed by an expert literacy panel to the Liberal government in 2004.

However, the committee heard from several witnesses that federal funding levels for adult literacy have been inadequate for many years, that a significant increase is required to recognize the crucial role of literacy in Canada’s economic and social progress, and that national and regional literacy organizations need multi-year, core funding to continue their crucial roles as coordinators of Canada’s grassroots literacy efforts.[6]

Recommendation NDP-4: The NDP recommends that the government significantly increase funding for adult literacy programs, including multi-year, core funding for national and regional literacy organizations.

Postsecondary Education

We are disappointed that the main text of the committee report did not recommend the creation of a federal strategy for postsecondary education, as proposed in the testimony of the Canadian Council on Learning. Without a set of pan-Canadian objectives and a plan to measure and achieve them, Canada’s piecemeal approach to higher education will continue to weaken the international competitiveness of our workforce and our economy.

We note that several key stakeholder groups who did not testify for this study have publicly argued that the increase in federal education transfers fall at least $1 billion short of the fair federal share for core funding, and that federal funding remains unaccountable unless it is separated from the CST as a dedicated PSE transfer.[7]

Recommendation NDP-5: The NDP recommends that the government, in collaboration with provinces and territories, implement the principles enshrined in Bill C-398, the Canada Postsecondary Education Act, which guarantees stable, adequate federal funding to protect the accessibility, quality, affordability and integrity of Canada’s public colleges and universities.

We are pleased that the government has finally created a comprehensive federal system of student grants that includes middle-income students. However, the new system would provide less than one-half of tuition fees for low-income students, and barely the cost of textbooks for middle-income students. Further, basing the grant on income discriminates against those students who choose or need to travel away from home to attend the postsecondary institution that meets their academic needs.

Recommendation NDP-6: The NDP recommends that the government significantly increase the budget of the Canada Student Grant Program and consult with student groups and other postsecondary stakeholders before September 2008 in order to identify and address critical flaws in the program before its first year of operation in September 2009, including incorporating a significant needs-based component.

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Mandatory Retirement

The Committee heard that ending mandatory retirement should not be used as a solution to the skills shortage or to poverty amongst seniors, and would in fact have the opposite effect of reducing job opportunities for today’s unemployed and removing the pressure on governments and employers to train and recruit young workers.

“There was no appetite whatsoever on the part of the general population, business and labour leaders, or the hundreds of people involved in Atlantic Canada and Saskatchewan, to use a lengthened working life as a solution to skills issues.” – Shirley Seward, Canadian Labour and Business Council, 20 Jun 2006

Instead, the federal government must protect the right of workers to retire with adequate retirement income, specifically by making improvements to CPP, OAS and GIS and ensuring more secure, well-paying jobs for working-age Canadians.

Recommendation NDP-7: The NDP recommends that the government reject raising the age of mandatory retirement, and instead enhance income security for seniors.

Aboriginal Canadians

Recommendation NDP-8: Further to committee recommendation 3.9, for greater clarity the NDP recommends that the government remove the two-percent cap on all social spending at Indian and Northern Affairs Canada in order to realize improvements to aboriginal K-12 education, housing, recreation, early childhood care, and welfare payments in addition to postsecondary education.

Persons with disabilities

We are disappointed that recommendations related to persons with disabilities refer only to enhancing access without acknowledging the structural barriers to work. At least one witness called for a comprehensive economic strategy for persons with disabilities, including not just training and assistance devices, but also support for affordable housing, transportation, and income security as a means of developing an individual’s employability for the long-term. The same witness also asked that the government extend the Federal Contractors Program (FCP) (which requires employers with a national workforce of 100 or more employees to commit to employment equity as a condition for bidding on large federal contracts), to employers with 20 or more employees.[8]

Recommendation NDP-9: The NDP recommends that the government develop a comprehensive economic strategy with and for persons with disabilities, and that the government extend the FCP to employers with 20 or more employees.

Pay Equity

We are disappointed that the committee recommendation regarding pay equity omits two key requests by the National Council of Women (NCW) in its presentation to the committee: (1) to replace the existing federal pay equity scheme with comprehensive and proactive pay equity legislation; and (2) to develop easily accessible procedures to access equity processes for non-unionized women, as well as for part-time, casual, seasonal, and contractual workers.[9] Given a recent report by the Canadian Labour Congress finding that women continue to earn 70 percent of men’s wages (68 percent for postsecondary degree holders), more concrete action is clearly required to address this persistent inequity.

Recommendation NDP-10: The NDP recommends that the government implement the full recommendations of the NCW regarding pay equity.

Temporary Foreign Workers and Seasonal Agricultural Workers

We are pleased that the committee recommended the examination the transition of temporary workers to permanent resident status. The TFWP and SAWP have drastically departed from the Canadian tradition of welcoming skilled workers as permanent residents (to join the stream to becoming full citizens), have become highly exploitative worker experiences in Canada, and must be significantly revamped before any expansion.

There is no mechanism to prevent, detect or stop abuse of temporary workers, who above all must be treated to the same benefits, rights and respect as Canadian workers. Therefore we are disappointed that recommendation 4.5 does not include the concrete solutions submitted by several witnesses.[10] To comply with the space limits imposed on this supplementary report, the NDP has detailed these solutions in a letter to the Ministers of Labour and Human Resources, from whom we request a formal response.

Recommendation NDP-11: The NDP recommends that the government work with the provinces and other stakeholders to implement concrete solutions to prevent, detect and stop abuse in the TFWP and SAWP.