Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. There is no doubt that we are in a situation where any initiative, any policy, that can encourage building more residential units and increase the supply of housing would be helpful. There is no doubt that, because of the pressure we are seeing in the housing market and the lack of enough supply of housing, it forced the federal government to step in and start significant programs and introduce a large number of initiatives.

Human Resources committee  I'm not a housing expert, but based on the research that I've done and looking at the research that the C.D. Howe Institute provided in its publications in terms of housing costs, one major part is the development charges that contribute to the cost of land. Something I want to highlight is that there are significant variations from one region to another and also from one province to another.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and honourable committee members. I'm very pleased to have this opportunity to speak with you today. Canada faces significant challenges in providing adequate and affordable housing for its residents. The C.D. Howe Institute's research has identified that spikes in housing prices are mainly due to the lack of housing supply, largely driven by municipal governments slowing down approvals.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. When we look at the disability issues, definitely individuals with a disability face significant barriers to labour market participation and employment. Often, even if they are employed—although it really depends on the level or severity of their disability—in general, we see that they earn less and their labour force participation is less than others in terms of employment.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. In terms of creating employment income that provides support to Canadians, I would say the first parameter that we need to consider is coverage—the proportion of Canadians who could have access to EI programs when they lose their jobs, or if we're going to have some sort of modernized EI program in the future, talking not only about employment loss but maybe income loss.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the opportunity to speak about that topic. The C.D. Howe Institute published, through commentaries and intelligence memos, and talked about why it was really important to have that transition, or if we wanted to extend CERB, we needed to reform that program, because when CERB was created and introduced, the purpose was to keep people inside their houses.

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and honourable committee members. I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to speak to you today. The pandemic has exposed existing gaps in our employment insurance program and the need for potential EI reform to build a sustainable income support system.

Human Resources committee  The crisis impacts the border specifically, and the impact on immigration has been huge. Canada is not able to meet its target levels for 2020, and we are not even sure about next year. At the same time, immigration is necessary to address the challenges related to an aging population, and these are not going to stop.

Human Resources committee  Collaboration between the federal and provincial governments is definitely needed to achieve that goal, but this is also something where provincial governments have to step in. They have to contribute. They have to support such an initiative.

Human Resources committee  If I understand the question, I want to emphasize that we need a separate program for those who are unemployed, but as for which program is necessary for the crisis, it's necessary to think first about how, for example, we need an income-tested program that links benefits to the monthly income of the individuals.

Human Resources committee  Yes, definitely. This is actually what I was trying to say. We need to go back to the EI program, but we need to improve the program to address the issues that it had even before the crisis.

Human Resources committee  Certainly, this is something important to consider. The reason is that, during the crisis, women were hit harder in terms of job losses than other population groups, and usually child care responsibility is on the shoulders of the woman in the household. To make sure that women, or even parents in general, are able to go back to work placements where there is no child care option available or where child care options are limited, we need to think about how we can provide the other options, such as child care subsidies.

Human Resources committee  In terms of extending the CERB program until the end of the summer, we thought that was a good call and a good direction to go in. First of all, not all provinces and not all sectors are ready to open the workplaces so that individuals can go back to them. At the same time, there are issues related to children and schools.

Human Resources committee  It's not exactly in my area to comment on, but because of the crisis, investing in that area is definitely going to help recovery, because anything that creates more jobs is going to contribute to the economy and help the recovery. At the same time, we know the amount of spending has been significant and right now governments are seeing less income and spending more, so to make a balance and to be able to spend more on other items is definitely going to be challenging for the government, to rank the priorities and make a decision about which project has to go forward.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for highlighting those things. As I said, right now as we are moving toward reopening the economy, the program creates great disincentives to work, because the amount of payment is not linked to the income. Many low-income earners, before the crisis, earned similar or even less than the amount of the benefit, so there is no incentive for them to look for any job at the moment while they are in the CERB program.