Hon. Wanda Thomas Bernard: Thank you for being here. Last week in Question Period, Senator Moreau shared some great news about the Black Entrepreneurship Program that is in place to support the many Black entrepreneurs emerging in the Canadian economy. Many Black Canadians start their own businesses because they cannot gain access to meaningful employment or advancement in employment, including the trades, due to anti-Black racism.

While the government is supporting entrepreneurs, what is the progress on ensuring Black Canadians also have equitable access to employment in the public service, free from discrimination, through the necessary changes that are required for employment equity legislation?

Hon. John Zerucelli, P.C., M.P., Secretary of State (Labour): Thank you very much for that really significant and important question. You may or may not know, but my riding has one of the largest Somali populations in the country, and with respect to my area of responsibility, I reflect on many Somali youth who want to get into the skilled trades but don’t have the mentorship or the knowledge on how to access the system.

I will note that unions like the carpenters’ union are doing excellent work in this area, supporting programs like community benefits programs and through the Union Training and Innovation Program, particularly around the innovation stream. These are the types of programs that we are looking to support through our Team Canada Strong. The apprenticeship program — one of the key pillars of the program is to ensure that we are bringing various groups into the skilled trades, like Indigenous Canadians, women, people of colour. So it is core to what we are trying to do. There are a number of barriers. I would love to speak more about it with you, but it certainly —

[Translation]

The Hon. the Speaker: Thank you, secretary of state.

[English]

Senator Bernard: Thank you, Mr. secretary. I’m from Nova Scotia, and I know from my work in the community there that there is a lot of sort of interesting community-based programs that are trying to leverage access to the trades for people of African descent, for example, but the programs are not adequately funded. I am wondering if you could speak to, again, that link between employment equity measures and the funding to ensure that those communities that are marginalized have more access to the trades.

Mr. Zerucelli: Thank you for that question. I would love to learn more about some of those programs. What I would say is that the challenge for the federal government is that apprenticeship is largely a provincial responsibility, so with the Union Training and Innovation Program and some of the things we are doing with the Apprenticeship Strategy, the federal government is using resources to help supplement that responsibility. So if there are particular programs or things that you feel are important that could be scaled to a national level, we are all open for suggestions.

[Translation]

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, the time for Question Period has expired.

[English]

I am certain that you will want to join me in thanking the Secretary of State for Labour, Mr. Zerucelli, for joining us today.

Thank you.

Mr. Zerucelli: Thank you all. My office is open. If there are opportunities or things you want to discuss, please send my office an email, and we will find time to connect. Thank you very much.

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear.