Finance committee  Some of our provincial associations do utilize the provincial governments through those types of funding, so they're certainly aware of it. But, as you probably are well aware, it's a different kettle of fish right across the country.

Finance committee  I think there is a safety concern, in being able to use materials or products, etc. Knowledge of one of the official languages is key, just for that purpose alone. I know a lot of examples of entire crews speaking Portuguese on the site, and they seem to get along well enough, but I think a lot of the concern about being able to speak one of the official languages on a construction site has to do with safety requirements.

Finance committee  Again, it's all over the map, but it's one of the few industries left where you truly see a real entrepreneurial spirit, where somebody starts on the tools and ends up being the CEO of a multi-million dollar construction company. There are many examples of that. It really depends.

Finance committee  That's true, and it's not just for our industry. When we talk about labour shortages, what we're really talking about is the skill and experience walking out the door. It's not a case of bodies. It's a case of knowledge and experience walking out the door. To give you some indication of what we're looking at, BuildForce Canada says that in the next 10 years or so we're going to have to find another quarter of a million new workers just to replace those who are going to be retiring in the next little while.

Finance committee  Until recently, the only reason we used the temporary foreign worker program was that the front door for permanent entry was closed to us, under the old points system. There was no way you were getting in as a tradesperson under the old points system, so what we would do is bring them in under the temporary foreign worker program and hopefully put them into a permanent entry program through one of the provinces, the provincial nominee program.

Finance committee  First of all, our association has always been on record as saying that we believe priorities should be set by the custodians, not by somebody sitting in Ottawa or Gatineau. I think that's key going forward, since the devolution of custodianship for infrastructure has taken place over a while, devolving to the municipalities, territorial governments, and provincial governments.

Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  Actually, it's almost the other way around. Our firms in North America—not just in Canada, but in the United States as well— use the bonding facility to leverage their own balance sheets, and they can do so by 15 to 20 times. What the bonding regime does for them is allow them to operate on rather large projects and use contract performance security that doesn't hamper or restrict their other abilities to get an operating line, etc., which would be hampered in situations in which you had to put up letters of credit, for example.

Finance committee  It's all over the map. It's not all that different from other industries that are populated primarily by SMEs. A lot of them are family-owned businesses, so a lot of them have generational succession, but just with Canada's aging demographic alone, we're finding that succession in family-owned businesses is much more challenging.

Finance committee  Sometimes that can be used, but if you're looking for a tradesperson, often you want to see a demonstration of their craft ability.

Finance committee  No. We're talking about a situation where they know there is work in the construction industry in a neighbouring province or in a northern region of their province, but to go to look for work in that area and be interviewed, etc., there's a cost to that, and it is a barrier.

Finance committee  Well, that's Canada, right? We have a provincial level of government. In many cases, municipalities are nothing but a creature of statute, so they don't have any legal status. It's difficult for the federal government to do an end run in those circumstances. Quite frankly, the model, with all its complexities, works pretty well.

Finance committee  Well, yes. StatsCan's current data says 60.4% of the firms active in the industry are micro with fewer than five employees; 99% of small businesses have fewer than 100. I want to talk about passive income, which is coming under a bit of an attack by Finance Canada. The suggestion that these companies are keeping money in their businesses to avoid paying tax is ridiculous.

Finance committee  You can't do any federal government work of any meaningful size without it.

Finance committee  The particular suggested change to EI would be with respect to people who are currently on EI, so it would be to look for a job. In some cases, although not all cases, as you probably well know, once somebody is employed, often the employer will pick up the relocation costs. But we're talking about a situation where somebody on EI can't find work in their own market, and about the expense to go to that next market to try to line up some interviews and look at potential employment.