First of all, I want to thank the committee again for the opportunity for us to present to the committee today on behalf of the congress. We have circulated copies of our brief. It's fairly detailed and I hope the committee members do have the time to read it at some point. Most of the issues that we're going to raise in our highlights I think are covered in our brief.
Our brief has three interrelated areas, with specific recommendations for each area.
First, we feel that the issues of employability in Canada must be examined by looking at the pattern of economic development that the government has been following in order to understand the implications for workers in our community.
In the second area, we have made a detailed analysis of the recommendations on the issues of the so-called skills shortage of migrant labour. I encourage you to read the paper.
Third, we recommend the need for an inclusive labour force development plan. We are calling for increased support for training programs and a revitalized apprenticeship program, a reinvestment of literacy programs, and an aggressive plan to better integrate equality-seeking groups and those with international credentials and the growing numbers of immigrants in the labour force, with equity in mind, not just as an afterthought.
On point one, the failed economic development policy, our analysis has shown that since the trade liberalization agreements such as NAFTA, more jobs have been lost than created. As a matter of fact, we lost over 200,000 manufacturing jobs in the last five years or so, but the impact has been the widening income gap among Canadians. Income inequality has increased for the first time in Canada since the 1920s. Half the workforce has not benefited from our economic growth. Gains have gone to the rich. Canadian families are putting in more time, yet 80% of them are getting a smaller share of the growing economy.
Canada free trade and investment policy orientation has meant losing our manufacturing sector and replacing it with low-wage agricultural and environmentally damaging extractive industries. For example, in the agricultural and horticultural sector, it is not only growing, but it is also a sector where workplace injury and hazards are far too frequent. Considering that 30% of Caribbean and Mexican workers report significant workplace injuries, many are linked to the cumulative impacts of poor living and working conditions. Some situations are fatal. Just this month, three immigrant women were killed in the Fraser Valley on their way to a day farm with 14 other workers in an overloaded van.
Our brief also details the lower wage, unjust access to benefits and pensions, and labour mobility restrictions that affect nearly 20,000 seasonal agricultural workers.
The second example is the tar sands. There is a race to mine the tar sands, and oil is also extracting an enormous amount of natural gas and water. How much natural gas? Six billion cubic feet per day, enough gas to heat 3.2 million homes per day. How much water? Well, 4.5 barrels of water are used to produce one barrel of oil. In 2005, this was twice the amount of water used by the city of Calgary. Plans for expansion of projects will have a drought-prone province dry.
The social and health costs are grave. First, Fort Chipewyan Dene people are now facing a higher incidence of leukemia, lupus, and autoimmune diseases. Elders say these ailments come with the oil industry, the failure to place this development and creating disruptive dislocations. The east coast is losing even more young people as they race to join the western boom.
The recommendation is that we need to reverse the trend of highly explosive, unsustainable economic development that polarizes regions and social groups. We recommend that a national coordinated strategy establish a reasonable pace of development for all major natural resources expansion projects.
A pace of development plan of natural resources means taking the time to do a comprehensive social and environmental impact assessment, enabling the planning and implementation of a training and apprenticeship program that can meet the demands of skilled labour, maximizing the benefit for job creation at reasonable rates of wages and growth, and permitting the construction of adequate public infrastructure in projects areas commensurate with the growth.
We need to see labour market planning responding to community needs. For example, affordable housing, child care, public transport, potable water, and waste water delivery and treatment facilities are crucial areas requiring immediate public investment both in terms of construction and labour force training and placement of workers.
The Canadian Nurses Association predicts a shortage of over 100,000 nurses by 2011. These needs hold promise for greater balance in employment access across Canada in several sectors. The brief details other examples.
Concerning skills shortage and migrant labour, the CLC questions the employers' promoted myth of a widespread skills shortage in Canada. There is growing evidence that employers are using the claim of skills shortage to employ foreign workers in a range of skills categories, thereby avoiding the obligation to provide workers with acceptable working conditions and wage levels.
Here is just one example. Last summer, 30 Costa Ricans and 10 Colombians and Ecuadorians came under the foreign worker program. None spoke English. They had been in Canada less than two months and were being paid at $1,000 U.S. net in return for a 65-hour work week, the equivalent of $10.43 an hour, while domestic labourers were earning $20 to $25.