Hon. Diane Bellemare: Welcome, minister. Canada’s Official Poverty Dashboard of Indicators includes an indicator for youth, specifically the percentage of Canadians aged 15 to 24 who are not in employment, education or training. This indicator, known as NEET, sits at 11.4% in Canada, which is high, considering there is a labour shortage.

According to data from a recent poll I commissioned with Angus Reid, 64% of young people would support federal funding for a job pathway program that would be managed by the provinces. The European Union funds those types of programs through the reinforced Youth Guarantee, to reduce the NEET.

As the minister responsible for the poverty reduction strategy, would you be prepared to advocate for such a strategy to your colleagues? Also, how do you propose addressing this issue?

Hon. Marty Deacon: My question concerns the matter of a child and youth commissioner. It’s been 15 years since the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights asked the government of the day to establish a commissioner for children and youth, but we are still without one.

In the last Parliament, my colleague Senator Moodie introduced legislation that would have created one, but it died on the Order Paper when the election was called.

As a reminder, a 2020 UNICEF Report Card ranked Canada thirtieth out of thirty-eight rich countries in terms of child well-being. Compounding matters is two years of a pandemic that has taken a toll on absolutely everyone, but especially young people.

Moving forward, I think it would be wise to have more tools to support our young Canadians. My question is: Does the government see the utility of a child and youth commissioner? If so, would it support legislation to that end? Thank you.

Hon. Karina Gould, P.C., M.P., Minister of Families, Children and Social Development: Thank you very much, senator, for the question. I am always impressed by the level of advocacy by senators for children and youth in our country. I want to thank you for that. I certainly appreciate it.

I would be happy to have further conversations on this issue. I certainly welcome that discussion.

I think that for too along we have not supported our children in Canada the way that we should be. I’m very pleased, as I mentioned, that in 2015 we brought in the Canada Child Benefit, which we know, in fact, was an enormous improvement when it comes to child welfare in this country. There’s more work to do.

I’m extremely excited about what early learning and child care will enable for our children moving into the future. I’m really proud of the work that Canada has done in children’s rights, not just here in Canada but right around the world.

Certainly, we have much to be proud of, but we have much to continue to work on. I look forward to continuing this conversation with yourself and others who are interested in having it.