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Adjournment Proceedings

2026-05-27 Sitting 123 Showing 1–4 of 4

The Conservatives raised concerns about Canada's high youth unemployment rate and questioned the government's response. The Liberals mostly talked up various existing government programs and spending, without directly addressing the high unemployment rate.

Official Hansard ↗

Garnett Genuis

Conservative 6:45 p.m.

“Young people can't find jobs. The government has no plan. Our report has good ideas. The government should do what we say.”

Official Hansard

Madam Speaker, I rise this evening to address the continuing, worsening youth unemployment crisis. The youth unemployment rate now is at 14.3%. We recently asked the finance minister about the youth unemployment crisis in this country. He would not agree in the House that we face a youth unemployment crisis, and he was not even able to state the youth unemployment rate. That is from the finance minister of this country, which shows how asleep at the switch the government is. It has no plan to address a crisis that it will not acknowledge and does not even understand the magnitude of. However, there is good news as well. This week the human resources committee tabled its detailed report on a youth unemployment crisis study, which contains many recommendations that, actually, specifically reflect the Conservative youth jobs plan. As we have called on the government to confront this youth unemployment crisis, we have put forward a Conservative youth jobs plan to unleash the economy, to fix immigration, to fix training and to build homes where the jobs are, and now we have a unanimous report from the human resources committee that reflects these key Conservative priorities. I want to congratulate the members of the human resources committee from all parties who got behind these Conservative priorities. Now it is time for a government that has been asleep at the switch for too long to recognize this crisis, to talk to young people, to read the statistical reports, to know the information and to implement a real plan that reflects what Conservatives have put forward and what is contained in this all-party report. I want to highlight a number of the recommendations. First, this all-party report recommends that “the Government of Canada seek to reduce taxes and red tape in order to address concerns about how the taxation and regulatory environment has limited productivity growth and held back youth employment.” It is incredible, an all-party recommendation calling on the government to respond to this Conservative priority to reduce taxes and red tape. Recommendation two states, “That the Government of Canada recognize the positive role that natural resource development, manufacturing, and all other sectors play in contributing to employment, and seek to valorize work in all sectors.” Recommendation three deals with recognizing the role that immigration policy failures have had in contributing to youth unemployment, and addressing them. Recommendation five calls on the government to “apply strict penalties to companies hiring illegal workers.” We have actually had cases where companies that have been punished for hiring illegal workers went on to get government subsidies. When we have this culture of permissiveness toward companies hiring illegal workers, it contributes to youth unemployment. Recommendation seven calls on the government to “celebrate the value and dignity of trades work [and] ensure that institutions providing trade skills are treated equally and fairly”. That responds to the fact that the government has actually removed funding for grants from students attending vocational institutions. That is, if someone is trying to pursue in-demand skills at a vocational institution, the government has cut them off from getting a student grant. We would reverse that, and that is what is alluded to by recommendation seven in this all-party report. There are many great recommendations in this report. It provides a clear blueprint for the government to follow, building on the Conservative youth jobs plan released in the fall. The government is doing nothing. Young people are getting desperate. The government needs a plan. We now have an all-party report that follows the lead of the Conservatives with specific concrete recommendations. Is the government prepared to implement these constructive recommendations in the 10th report of the human resources committee?

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Leslie Church

Liberal 6:50 p.m.

“We are spending a lot of money on many programs. We are training many workers. These programs are very successful. The government is doing a good job.”

Official Hansard

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan for his question. It provides another opportunity to remind Canadians of our government's commitment to renew the nation's workforce with targeted, dynamic investments in our young people. We are building big, we are building bold, and we are building now. We are building at a scale not seen in this country since the end of the Second World War. We are building 500,000 homes and developing major projects in the national interest, all with Canadian steel, Canadian lumber and Canadian workers. We are not just building homes and infrastructure; we are training the workforce of the future that will build it. I do not have time to speak in detail about all the programs, but knowing the interest that the member opposite has shown in youth employment, let me focus on some of the highlights. Team Canada strong, a new measure announced in the spring economic update, is a $6-billion nationwide effort to recruit, train and hire up to 100,000 new Red Seal trades workers in the next five years. This is a plan to address the concerns we heard directly from unions, employers, industry and youth themselves. We are launching the build Canada apprenticeship service to provide up to $10,000 for an apprentice's first-year salary. This will help employers recruit new apprentices and allow us to help match apprentices to job opportunities. We are boosting training capacity and expediting certification in the Red Seal trades. We are helping hire new apprentices by providing a $400 per week top-up while apprentices attend mandatory in-class training and by offering a one-time $5,000 apprenticeship completion bonus to incentivize apprentices to finish their programs. This represents up to $16,000 in support for each apprentice, from recruitment through to training and hiring. It will help workers, whether they are transitioning to this new career or just getting started in the workforce. Similarly, Employment and Social Development Canada's youth employment program is helping more than 25,000 youth with tailored employment supports for the period of 2024-28. An assessment of this program found that nearly 76% of participants who received skills training and employment supports were still employed the following year. That is an impressive success rate and a sign that our investments as a government are targeted and effective. Equally impressive is the success we are seeing with the student work placement program. It is not only helping post-secondary students develop work-ready skills, but also giving employers the means to recruit and develop talent through paid, work-integrated learning opportunities. Again, the statistics tell us that this program is making a difference. In 2024-25, the program placed 51,000 post-secondary students with employers. That makes more than 300,000 opportunities since 2017. The beauty of this program is that it prepares young Canadians for their careers with employers in many sectors right across the economy. As we build this future workforce, private sector employers play a crucial role. It is why we have also introduced new measures to support strategic sectors of the economy and advance major projects. We are creating good, well-paying jobs and our government is continuing to announce significant measures to help employers do just that. Let me assure the member opposite that we take youth employment extremely seriously and we are working with all of our partners to make sure that they are equipped with the skills and opportunities that they need to thrive. This is work that we are going to continue to do and work that was set out so prominently in the spring economic statement as part of a massive new investment to help our young people have the skills they need for the future.

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Garnett Genuis

Conservative 6:55 p.m.

“You talk about your programs a lot. But you don't fix youth unemployment. You just spend more of other people's money. You don't make youth unemployment better. Your plans don't work. You need to admit that.”

Official Hansard

Madam Speaker, it is really incredible listening to the way the government talks about the youth unemployment crisis, because fundamentally it seems that it does not understand the task. The task is to address the youth unemployment rate. It is to address the fact that we have a high and climbing youth unemployment rate. It is to address the fact that youth employment is at one of its lowest points in decades. It is to address the real facts on the ground. In response to these questions, the government never actually talks about the youth unemployment rate. It never points to success in terms of, in aggregate, getting more young people into work. It always wants us to be impressed by the amount of money it is spending, by the fact that it is continuing existing programs and by the fact that it has hopes and ambitions for things that it might do later on. Can the member acknowledge that it is not working and that the youth unemployment rate is high and increasing, that their plans are not achieving the—

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Leslie Church

Liberal 6:55 p.m.

“I want taxpayers to spend more money on training for trades. I think that it's good when young people learn trades. I met people who said nice things about our spending. I think that if we spend more it will create more jobs.”

Official Hansard

Madam Speaker, I was in the home province of the member opposite just last week. I was meeting with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, talking about the amazing work that is being done there to graduate young people into the trades. It is work that we continue to build on. Just yesterday, I met with the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum. They called our investments in the spring economic statement a project that made them feel heard. They said that their concerns about how we increase the number of apprentices and increase the number of skilled trade workers across the country are being focused on, and that these are incredible concrete initiatives to improve the recruitment, retention and training of our skilled workers in Canada. We are making these investments precisely because we know that the future of our country's economy, the future of our workforce and the future of so many young Canadians looking to build careers in good-paying jobs depend on our ability to have a skilled trades workforce that meets our needs. That is exactly what we are going to continue to do.

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