COMPLEMENTARY REPORT FOR
THE NEW DEMOCRATIC
PARTY (NDP)
The
Official Opposition members of the Standing Finance Committee would firstly
like to thank the witnesses who took the time to present their views and
solutions on the issue of youth unemployment in Canada.
We are pleased to support the main report. However, in response to the views
expressed by the witnesses, important remarks should be added concerning the
global economic context which influences the structure of our labour market, as
well as the responses of the government regarding especially some of the major
challenges that youth face in the labour market.
Unfortunately, since the Conservative
government came to power, the situation has steadily deteriorated, and it is
obvious that youth employment does not appear to be a priority for this
government.
Indeed, as stated in the committee main report, Canadian youth still suffer to
this day from the effects of the economic crisis. While employment growth for
the entire population was not sufficient to recover the jobs lost during the
crisis, young people have been particularly affected. More than 455,000 jobs for people
under 25 have been lost since before the recession. And the unemployment
rate stubbornly now double that of the population aged 25 years and older.
The recovery is slow,
and the affected areas are still precarious several years after the crisis. Amy
Huziak, for the Canadian Labour Congress, rightly said that "Recessions
are always harder on young workers, but we are nearly five years past the end
of the last recession and there's still no recovery in sight for young workers[1]."
The Conference Board
of Canada has confirmed this data, noting "We have
not seen one iota of pickup with respect to that cohort [15-24 years].
Employment levels are about the same as they were, participation rates have not
picked up at all, and I think we've missed an opportunity here to get youth
back into the labour market[2]."
The New Democratic Party (NDP) is deeply concerned by the situation of the labour
market for young Canadians and refuses to accept soaring levels of youth
unemployment as normal.,
Leadership:
Collaboration with the provinces and territories.
We firmly
believe that the federal government can show leadership in helping create jobs
for young people. This will require collaborating with the provinces rather
than picking jurisdictional battles.
It has a
responsibility to work with the provinces on areas of education, training and
apprenticeships in order to ensure better opportunities and outcomes for youth
in the labour market. The federal government’s action to date has been
insufficient in the face of the problem.
Aboriginal
youth.
Joe Noel of the
Assembly of First Nations (AFN) testified about the troubling gap between the
graduation rates of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. He told Committee
that the post-secondary graduation rate on reserve is about 14.4% compared to
39.1% for non-aboriginal population. Even more troubling, high-school
graduation rates are just 36.8% on reserve compared with 66.8% for the broader
population.
"The First Nations population is young and growing fast. Fully
half of our population of 930,000 is under the age of 25[3]; [but]
unfortunately, as it stands right now, the majority of
first nations youth have not graduated high school[4]". Regrettably,
the Federal government has contributed to this situation by consistently
underfunding First Nations education and schools.
Thus, although the
committee has agreed to recommend extending the ASETS training strategy for
skills and employment for Aboriginal people, the NDP would have preferred to go
further by recommending an increase in budget for this successful program. In
addition, this program alone is far from sufficient, and we hope that the
government takes into account the work of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal
Affairs and Northern Development (AANO) on these issues.
Barriers
to employment.
The cost of
postsecondary education.
The NDP believes that
education is a major factor in social mobility. In fact, in the study on income
inequality, witnesses were near unanimous in identifying postsecondary
education, financial literacy and early childhood education as important
measures to reduce income inequality and its consequences. Again, in this
study, the link between a high level of education and a lower unemployment rate
was re-established by all witnesses. Similarly, on the cost of education, all
witnesses agree that the ability to pursue post-secondary education enables
young people to increase their opportunities on the labor market, as well as their
conditions of employment.
What is more difficult to accept for the government, is the link between greater
access to education and student debt. However, several
witnesses, including the Canadian Federation of Students, emphasized that "You cannot separate
the level of debt a student is currently incurring to obtain the skills they
need to work from their ability to find successful employment within that
field [5]". However,
financial aid
is scarce, because "unlike
the cost of education, the level of federal
financial aid available to students has not moved for nearly a decade.[6]" No wonder that an
increasing number of students have trouble repaying their loans.
In fact, the Canadian Federation of Students noted that "the costs of postsecondary education [in Canada] are nearly double the OECD
average" [while] the
total "student debt is
estimated at about $ 28.3 billion";
it is clear that "[...] High levels of debt are impacting young Canadians' ability to
integrate and participate in the broader economy upon graduation.[7]" That is why the NDP has made the following recommendation:
Recommendation 1: That the Government
of Canada should provide greater assistance in the form of grants and thus
directly reduce student debt.
The labour market and
youth.
Simply taking account
of unemployment rates masks a number of other realities that young people experience
in the labour market.
- Precarious
employment. Precarious, temporary and part-time jobs, with reduced or even non-existent benefits
are a reality for many young workers, whose situation is not reflected in the
statistics. According to the Canadian Labour Congress, "[...] unemployment isn't the only issue that needs to be addressed.
One third of young workers are employed part time, and many are in low-wage,
temporary, and otherwise insecure employment, with a large contingent located
in the retail and service sector, which is notoriously insecure. Too many young
workers are underemployed [...]. We calculate the underemployment
rate for young workers aged 15 to 24 to be 27.7% for 2013. This is a significant
number. [8]"
The competition is becoming increasingly fierce in the labour market and, the
transition to the workplace for young post-secondary graduates is increasingly
difficult.
- Unpaid
internships. The increasingly frequent use of unpaid internships by employers also poses a
particular challenge for young Canadians. The NDP agrees that there are good
internship programs associated with academic institutions that help young
Canadians benefit from a first work experience relevant and improve their career
prospects. However, several witnesses denounced the trend among some employers to
use unpaid internships as a prerequisite to employment, as a way to fill
positions that would otherwise be paid and which do not necessarily lead to the
acquisition of relevant experience for the career of the young worker.
Fortunately, the Committee adopted a recommendation regarding the collection of
data on unpaid internships in Canada; however we would have liked a stronger
emphasis on the need for better management of this practice, through amendments
to the Canada Labour Code to ensure better working conditions.
- Temporary
foreign workers. Youth also face particular competition on the labour market from the growth of
the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). The problem, according to some
witnesses, is that "It's very hard to know where
the numbers are exactly, but let's say there are 300,000 perhaps in the
workforce today. It would add 1.5% to the unemployment rate.[9]" Indeed,
foreign workers admitted under the low-skilled occupations stream of the TFWP
are in "direct competition with young people[10]" and the
program "is preventing the market from working
within Canada.[11]" Such a program
may result in downward pressure on wages in lower-skilled employment sectors, which
is typically where young people have their first work experience. Despite the
fact that the government has announced a moratorium on the TFWP in the area of
fast food, it seems to have no intention to revise the program as
a whole, which is still badly needed. The government must take action against
employers who abuse the program and protect jobs and employment opportunities
for young Canadians.
Recommendation 2: That the
Government of Canada impose an immediate moratorium on the use of the Temporary
Foreign Worker Program for lower-skilled occupations, which includes fast-food,
service and restaurant jobs and request an urgent audit of the program by the
Auditor General..
Youth
with disabilities.
Youth with
disabilities also face great challenges in the labour market: a more difficult transition
from school to work, reduced support services to meet their individual needs
and job opportunities , and ignorance of their actual capabilities. Youth with
disabilities are more educated than ever, however, as indicated by one witness
" [...] the employment rate of youth with
disabilities aged 16 to 24 was 45.7% in 2011] and for the same age cohort among
those without disabilities it was 56%.[12]" Despite the committee's recommendation to encourage hiring, and to facilitate
their transition from school to the labour market; the government must finally
stop procrastinating and take action to enable young people benefit from better
opportunities to enter the labour market permanently.
Childcare
Program.
One witness
reported the results of a survey of students who stated that "60% of students will postpone buying a house because of
their debt and 40% will postpone their plans to start a family.[13]" Thus, the first job is not everything. Another issue of great importance then
comes into play for "young professionals": the work-family balance.
Tammy Schirle, Associate Professor of Wilfrid Laurier University came to
testify to the fact that "child care is really vital for women to enter
into the labour force when their children are younger. […] When women first
start out in the labour market in that 25- to 29-year-old range, the gap isn't
very large. [...] It's
after a few years, when they've had to take departures out of the labour force
for child care and other reasons, that they have some skill depreciation […]. Improving the child
care system, I think of this as a market failure, and improving the child care
system to better facilitate young women in the labour force would certainly
have its benefits, in my opinion.[14]"
Recommendation 3: That the
government of Canada work with the provinces and territories to improve access
to affordable, quality child care and early childhood education programs to
help young parents fully participate in the labour market if they wish to do
so.
|