This House of Commons committee meeting of the Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA) was studying youth employment in Canada. The witnesses were Michaël Bizzarro, Co-Coordinator of the Mouvement autonome et solidaire des sans-emploi (MASSE); Syed Hussan, Executive Director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change; and Mikal Skuterud, a Professor of Economics at the University of Waterloo appearing as an individual.
Michaël Bizzarro argued that the current employment insurance (EI) system is outdated and excludes many young workers in atypical jobs like part-time, seasonal, and gig work, noting that four times more youth aged 15 to 24 report working part-time involuntarily compared to other age groups. He recommended a universal eligibility threshold of 350 hours or 13 weeks worked, 50 weeks of benefits, and a benefit rate of at least 70% of income at a minimum of $500 per week, and called for the government to contribute to EI premiums as a third party. He disagreed with the idea that immigration is a primary cause of youth unemployment, instead blaming a weakened labour market dominated by atypical work.
Syed Hussan argued that immigration is being scapegoated for youth unemployment, citing Bank of Canada evidence that tightening monetary policy and falling job vacancies, not immigration, are the cause. He stated that the federal government's own evaluation of the temporary foreign worker program found no evidence of job displacement or wage suppression, and that international students make up less than 10% of the youth workforce. He recommended a national youth workforce development strategy and a single-tier immigration system granting permanent resident status to all workers, which he said would strengthen local economies and reduce unemployment. He disagreed with Mikal Skuterud's claims about immigration's impact, arguing that correlation does not imply causation.
Mikal Skuterud stated that the youth unemployment rate of 14.7% is a return to historical norms, not a crisis, and that 54% of unemployed youth are full-time students. He argued that the increase in youth unemployment is driven by a sharp drop in low-skill job vacancies from over 600,000 to under 300,000, and that government efforts to address low-skill labour shortages, particularly through immigration, were "disastrous." He recommended prioritizing a high-skill, high-productivity economy by boosting average human capital through a transparent immigration system that selects applicants with the highest expected future earnings and by allowing slack lower-skill labour markets to incentivize youth skill investment. He disagreed with Syed Hussan, asserting that research shows immigration can have adverse labour market effects on competing workers.
During questioning, Mikal Skuterud clarified that the drop in job vacancies represents a return to normal after a historic post-pandemic high, and that government job programs have opportunity costs. Syed Hussan noted that the youth climate program in the recent budget is a good first step but too small. Michaël Bizzarro stated that only about 1% of EI claimants commit fraud, and that the system's rules work well to manage benefits. Mikal Skuterud also said that DEI policies have distributional effects, benefiting some and harming others by excluding certain groups from eligibility for jobs.
AI-generated summary — may contain errors; verify against the official evidence.