Official Hansard
Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by informing you that I will be sharing my time with the member for Winnipeg South Centre. For over a year now, I have had the pleasure of serving as the member for Madawaska—Restigouche, and since day one, our government has remained focused on what we can control: building a stronger Canadian economy, diversifying our international trade partners, managing the budget rigorously and responsibly and supporting Canadians who are struggling because of the cost of living. We are on the right track. We have more work to do, but over the past year, we have been on track, and our 2026 spring economic update is the next step in our plan to build a stronger Canada for everyone. Building Canada strong and meeting our housing, infrastructure and defence needs will require workers who are already qualified. Our workers are the engine of our economy in Canada. That is why, with the economic update, we are launching our plan to recruit and train workers, and hire 80,000 to 100,000 new Red Seal skilled trades workers over the next five years. That is important because we want to build big, but we need the manpower to do it. We will modernize the Red Seal program to reduce certification delays and improve national consistency. We will introduce online exams and digital logbooks and create a single national registered apprenticeship number. All of this will help to simplify the process. We will also introduce financial incentives. As part of their Red Seal certification training, apprentices have to accumulate a certain number of hours of on-the-job training, which is essential to their apprenticeship. To help employers hire, train and retain apprentices, we will put in place wage subsidies of up to $10,000 for their first-year salary. This is a financial incentive to support employers who give our apprentices on-the-job training opportunities. Of course, there is also the classroom training component. We will be providing apprentices with an additional $40 week in income while they are completing their mandatory classroom training. This amount will be in addition to measures already in place, such as employment insurance benefits for eligible apprentices and the student loan and grant program. We will also introduce a new $5,000 success bonus upon obtaining Red Seal certification. By comparison, the previous version of this bonus was approximately $2,000, so this is a substantial increase. Why is this being introduced now? It is because we want to provide apprentices currently in their training program with an incentive to complete their training and obtain the Red Seal. When we talk about training the next generation, it is also important to offer meaningful employment experiences. That is why I am very pleased that the economic update reiterates our government's decision to increase funding for the Canada summer jobs program. We are already seeing real results. In my riding of Madawaska—Restigouche, this represents an investment of more than $1.5 million for the summer of 2026, which will support more than 400 jobs for young people in my region. This includes jobs in a variety of sectors, such as summer camps, tourist sites, care homes, day cares and the cultural community, to name a few. In addition to giving young people a great job experience, it also supports our community organizations, our small and medium-sized businesses and our municipalities because it allows them to hire summer workers who are essential to their activities. That in itself is great news. I would also like to draw my colleagues' attention to the fact that Canada covers a vast area and its economic realities vary across the country. Many sectors, including agriculture, fishing, forestry and tourism, especially in rural areas, rely heavily on seasonal workers. As we know, these industries have to cope with weather and seasonal constraints, as well as variations related to fluctuating demand. For that reason, EI provides temporary income support to these workers during the off-season, while they wait for a new season of employment to begin. It gives them some financial stability and lets them remain in their community. Supporting seasonal workers through EI this way also benefits employers in the sectors I mentioned earlier, as well as our regional economies, by allowing employers to retain skilled workers and to ensure they remain on hand for the coming season. A program consisting of five additional weeks of EI was created in 2018 to support seasonal workers. It was active in 13 of the country's economic regions where seasonal work employs a significant portion of the labour market, as it does in Madawaska—Charlotte and Restigouche-Albert, which make up the entirety of my riding. These measures enable seasonal workers to receive five additional weeks of benefits. This is essential because it allows them to bridge the gap between one working season and the next, thereby avoiding what is commonly referred to as the spring gap. These support measures were initially intended to be temporary and were due to expire in October 2026. My colleagues from the affected regions and I have held discussions with our colleagues, and I am very pleased to say that the economic update has announced additional funding to extend the five‑week measure, so that seasonal workers in our regions can continue to receive benefits during what is known as the spring gap. The economic update also extends some of the temporary measures we put in place in response to the tariff dispute. For example, the one-week waiting period for receiving EI benefits has been temporarily removed. Initially, this was intended to last for six months. We have extended this period until the fall and will reassess the situation at that time. This is good news for workers. In the economic update, we also announced that we will make it easier to access the disability tax credit. The disability tax credit provides significant tax relief to persons with disabilities and their supporting family members. As members know, eligibility for the credit serves as a key requirement for other federal supports, including the Canada disability benefit. It is important for us, as a government, to ensure that people who need help are able to access all the assistance to which they are entitled. We realized that certain bureaucratic procedures could sometimes make it extra challenging to access the disability tax credit. For example, health care professionals are required to certify a person's disability and its impact on their daily activities by filling out a form that can sometimes be time-consuming. Our experience over the past few years has shown us that, for certain medical conditions, it would be possible to streamline the process and reduce paperwork to simplify the process for health care professionals. That is why we announced in the economic update that we will implement a simplified application process for individuals with a formal diagnosis of certain long-lasting medical conditions. It is important to note that the eligibility criteria are not changing, but based on our experience, we have observed that people with certain illnesses do, in fact, meet the criteria, so they will no longer be required to fill out the entire form. I will give a concrete example. If a health care professional certifies on the form that their patient has Alzheimer's disease, they will not need to answer all the questions about how the disease is affecting their daily life, because that information has already been documented, and we will consider the person with the disease eligible for the tax credit. This will apply to more than 40 medical conditions, such as stage three or higher chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cystic fibrosis and schizophrenia. A whole series of other medical conditions are listed, and this will simplify the process for people living with those conditions. We will also expand the list of health care professionals who can certify eligibility for the tax credit in order to ease the burden on health care workers. Podiatrists, physiotherapists, speech therapists and occupational therapists will all be able to certify certain conditions related to their areas of expertise. These are just some of the various measures we are putting in place to ensure that people who need help actually get the support they need. This economic update brings more good news for the Atlantic provinces. As we know, investments in small craft harbour infrastructure were long overdue. This was a long-standing request from coastal communities. I am pleased to say that, in this budget, the Atlantic provinces have been heard, and we will see historic investments in this harbour infrastructure, which plays a vital role in the economies of rural and coastal communities. I look forward to hearing questions from my colleagues, and I hope we can work together to pass this economic update. I hope that my colleagues in the opposition will support us, because I believe this update contains good news for all Canadians.
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