Hon. Andrew Cardozo: Honourable senators, first, let me salute the National Trust for Canada and the Canadian Museums Association. Their members are the people who keep Canada Canadian.

Colleagues, today I would like to draw your attention to the issue of unemployment among young Canadians. Youth unemployment is currently just over 14%, which is double the national average. Although Statistics Canada does not provide a precise numerical figure, a simple calculation suggests there are around 370,000 unemployed young people in Canada today, and the number is growing.

High youth unemployment is particularly pernicious because its negative effects can persist far into adulthood. Unemployment in those early years is associated with long-term lower wages, worse health and lower happiness and job satisfaction compared to counterparts. Persistent youth unemployment leaves young people with little hope and, in some cases, has provided fertile ground for radicalization.

We have a structural and societal problem we are not addressing sufficiently. Further, with technology developing fast, these young people are being left behind in technical education and, worse, will get left further behind as many entry-level and low-skilled jobs become automated.

The government has proposed some important measures in the recent budget to ameliorate the situation. This includes $1.5 billion over the next two years for the Canada Summer Jobs program, the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy and the Student Work Placement Program. While this new money will help, and I support these expenditures, it remains very insufficient. For example, jobs under the Canada Summer Jobs program last between 8 and 16 weeks — probably mostly 8 weeks — while full-time students need 16 weeks, and other young people need 52 weeks of full-time employment.

The programs announced, in essence, provide employment for about 10% of unemployed youth, while 90% of unemployed young people are not being addressed in any of these programs. They can understandably feel that no one cares about their plight. And I’m not even talking about the large number of full-time students who badly need part-time work, which is increasingly hard to come by.

Also among unemployed youth are young people with various levels of education, from those who have not completed high school to those with postgraduate degrees. They all need our attention. We need to dream a lot bigger than what the federal and provincial governments have been thinking of in recent years and decades.

Colleagues, I want to invite you to engage in a dialogue in the new year about how governments, business, labour in urban and rural areas, on-reserve and off-reserve, can work together to address this growing crisis. Thank you.