Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, just following up on comments we had with the Executive, the Executive Offices and FMBS, and the concern about the appropriate locations for activities.
I would have to say that I think the idea behind a youth corps is interesting and certainly deserving of some consideration. I am surprised to see it and I notice the standing committee had commented on this, established in MACA. It is not because it is not an operating department. Clearly MACA is an operating department and that is not my concern. It leaves open, I think, too much of an opportunity for overlap and duplication.
For instance, if we are talking about skills improvement for young people, I would say that clearly those dollars should be coordinated through Education, Culture and Employment. My concern is that we are going to be setting up a bureaucracy to administer a youth corps when, if part of their mandate is to deliver skills improvement, we already have a delivery mechanism. We spend millions of dollars on that mechanism. It is called Education, Culture and Employment.
When we talk about work assignments, for instance, we have that under the Executive with the graduates program. Education, Culture and Employment has a program that assists young people who may not be graduates to find jobs and subsidizes employers so that more young people can find jobs. It appears to me that we are setting up an opportunity here for duplication and overlap.
I am also surprised that the Minister for Youth does not appear to have any involvement in the oversight of this program. Just looking at this, is the Minister not concerned that we might not actually maximize our dollars if his department has to spend moneys on administration instead of using the administration that is already set up in other areas, and therefore creating more government jobs, instead of getting more young people to get into public service?