Wednesday, 08 February 2012 10:01
Debates of the Senate - QUESTION PERIOD
Hon. Maria Chaput: Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate and concerns the closure of 98 of the 120 Service Canada offices over the next three years.
You will remember, honourable senators, that I have been closely following the reorganization of Service Canada centres since February 2011. I have never shied away from extolling the merits of Service Canada, especially the provision of services to official language minority communities. Service Canada could have been a model for other federal institutions for a long time to come. I understand that the reorganization is due to budget cuts, hence the importance of good planning and anticipating the impact of the changes.
Therefore, I would like to ask the Leader of the Government to provide us with the following information.
How many of the 98 offices that will close — where there are approximately 600 jobs — are located in regions designated as bilingual? Which ones? What is the exact number of positions that will be cut? How many are full-time, part-time and contract positions? How many of these positions are in regions designated as bilingual and which ones? How many of these positions are designated as bilingual?
As for the 22 offices that will remain open, how many positions will remain? How many are full-time, part-time and contract positions? How many of these positions are in regions designated as bilingual and which ones?
Can I count on the leader to obtain this information for us?
Hon. Marjory LeBreton (Leader of the Government): Honourable senators, I thank the senator for the question. I will take the question as notice and respond at a later time because she has asked for a significant amount of detail.
With regard to the overall plan of HRSDC for the operation of Service Canada, I think we all agree that the services provided to Canadians have been vastly improved by Service Canada. Some small community offices have been closed, but government employees did not work in those offices. As I have pointed out in last few days, the government and HRSDC are moving from a paper-driven process to an automated process.
Significant progress has been made on automation.
Today, for instance, Canadians complete 99 per cent of the nearly 3 million Employment Insurance claim applications online. Over the next three years, our goal is to have 70 per cent of the processing of EI applications fully or partially automated. At present, almost 20 per cent of claims are fully automated and 58 per cent of claims are fully or partially automated. These are claims that are filed online, matched with an electronically submitted record of employment and approved quickly for payment. It is a much more efficient method than the old paper method.
With regard to the numbers, the various locations and the bilingual capacity, honourable senators, I will be happy to take the question as notice and seek the answer she wishes.
Senator Chaput: Monday's edition of La Presse reported that there are significant delays in the processing of 80,000 employment insurance claims. The claims of thousands of Canadians that should normally be processed in 21 days are taking 123 to 128 days to process.
The government itself admits that it was unable to provide workers who had lost their jobs with these essential services within the prescribed time frame and that it had to quickly bring in 400 additional employees to process claims.
How can the government reassure Canadians by telling them that, three years from now, it will be able to provide these services effectively with 600 fewer employees?
Senator LeBreton: Honourable senators, this year, as in others, we have added resources in anticipation of the seasonal effect of unemployment in the winter. Over the last number of weeks we added 475 employees to the processing efforts and shifted 120 positions from part-time to full-time status.
Honourable senators, Human Resources and Skills Development is working extremely hard to ensure that the people who apply for benefits get them.
This whole exercise is closely monitored by Service Canada to ensure that Canadians receive the benefits to which they are entitled as quickly as possible.
Senator Chaput: Canadians understand full well that the government is trying to cut costs. However, is it reasonable to expect Canadian workers to bear the brunt of these budget cuts when they are already being forced to wait for months to receive their first employment insurance benefits?
Does Service Canada's restructuring plan indicate how such delays will be avoided with fewer employees to process employment insurance claims?
Senator LeBreton: Honourable senators, I will dispute the claim that Canadians are being subjected to unduly long wait times before they get their benefits. I do not think that is correct. I do not know the source of the senator's information.
I just explained that services have been improved through automation and I explained also that, because we are in a seasonal peak time, Service Canada has actually added people and moved people from part-time to full-time status to process these applications quickly.