Human Resources committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, honourable members, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the opportunity to speak here today. I'm the executive director of the Electricity Sector Council, whose mission is to strengthen the ability of the Canadian electricity industry to meet current and future workforce needs for a highly skilled, safety-focused, diverse, and productive workforce.

Human Resources committee  Particularly in our industry it's important to note that the majority of our workers are extremely high-skilled workers with post-secondary education. When difficulties arise—as we're seeing right now, as three companies have called me in the last two weeks from right across the country because of the extreme difficulty they are having in hiring employees in specific occupations—we can't just slot people in who are ready and fully competent to achieve that role.

Human Resources committee  In electricity, our numbers of temporary foreign workers are quite low: we're looking at about 12%, versus a 19% average within other industries. Definitely there's a lot of room for us to look into that area, and we're already seeing companies going overseas and trying to get workers as well to come in.

Human Resources committee  Yes, this is a huge issue for us. We're averaging about 2.2% of aboriginal workers within the electricity sector, which is extremely low. We've just completed a three-year project funded by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada looking at recruitment and retention of aboriginal people in the industry.

Human Resources committee  I would agree wholeheartedly. I think we absolutely need to be getting to them at a younger age. It's extremely important. A lot of the sector councils, the Electricity Sector Council included, have worked with the Toronto District School Board over the last number of years, and developed curricula where they partner with schools and bring in companies to talk to the students about the jobs.

Human Resources committee  I agree with you. There has been a lag in completions of apprenticeships. We are seeing that. In a lot of situations, what we're hearing from our employers is that as a result, they are taking them out of the apprenticeship stream they're in to do specialized work. If they can go to an organization that is desperately seeking apprentices, they will actually take them out, and they will make more money, because they will go where the money is.

Human Resources committee  I know. As Francis had mentioned, the skills requirements of employees now are drastically different. If you look at a system operator who manages the flow of power back and forth through the grid, now we have electricity coming in from solar panels, for example, from small business and homeowners.

Human Resources committee  So that they're engaging those groups...? It's such a potential supply and it links to your question about their sometimes having to go outside the country when we already do have a good pool here of untapped labour. Some of the companies that we work with are doing absolutely fantastic work, whether towards aboriginal recruitment or looking at engaging women in the workforce.