Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
With me today is Mr. Chris Smillie. Mr. Smillie, from my office, has cufflinks today, which is explained by the fact that, first, his mom is going to be watching today, and second, he had to beg them from me in order to be here.
Thank you very much for the opportunity. We'd like to say to the committee that we've made pitches here in the past. Thank you for the stimulus program; it put a lot of our people to work. We're not here to beat that one to death.
A number of presentations that have been made to you or will be made in this cycle will talk about labour supply issues. Labour supply issues, at a time when you can't pick up a magazine or a newspaper in this country without reading about skill shortages, are going to affect us in the near run.
We have a mobility problem in our industry, the construction industry. The truth is, we have enough people to do the work, but we don't have enough people who live in the provinces where the work is, and the work is of such a short duration that it's neither reasonable nor feasible for people to move their homes and families for a two- or three-month job.
Labour shortages are going to go on. We believe the Government of Canada can and should do something about that. We proposed in our material, and I will propose to you today, that what can be done is both efficient, an insignificant interference with the budgeting process, and something that in the final analysis will actually benefit financially the Government of Canada. We're proposing a sensible approach to a structural problem.
We need skilled people to build the infrastructure. If you don't have skilled people to build the infrastructure.... One of the significant drivers for people who are investing in major projects is knowing whether or not there will be someone to do the job. Shortages have the effect of creating uncertainty and insecurity within the contracting community and among the owners who actually put up the money for projects.
We spend a significant amount of our money in this country on post-secondary education. A portion of that is for the apprenticeship system. We train apprentices in every territory and province in the country, but frequently there is not enough work at home to allow someone to actually complete an apprenticeship. We want to be in a position to be able to move those people across the country so that they get varied experience and they get to complete their training. It is moving people from areas where work is slow to areas where demand exists. Across this country, people in trades are being trained no longer to an Alberta or an Ontario or a British Columbia standard, but rather to a national standard. We need an effective way to get people to work.
In some cases, employers will assist someone in getting across the country, but they won't absorb all the costs. We need an opportunity to let people claim net expenses by way of a tax credit. We're not talking here about commuting, but about people who move long distances across the country, are not able to return home daily, are generally flying to go somewhere, and are maintaining a second residence.
There is a cost to inaction. Inaction in these circumstances means the employment insurance account either staying with the same level of employment or unemployment, or else going up. We're suggesting a program that will foster a decrease in the draw on EI and decrease the horizontal spending that HRSDC and Citizenship and Immigration Canada currently undertake—about $64 million—on the temporary foreign worker program, labour market opinions, labour market information, and administering those programs.
Rather than remain on EI, the program we're suggesting gets skilled tradespeople to move across the country, to go where the work is, and to pay taxes. In our materials you will see the costs that we have looked at for the program. One dollar invested this year by the Government of Canada returns four dollars the next year and for each succeeding year.
We certainly have had some policy buy-in from the people at HRSDC. We now need the buy-in from the Department of Finance to do something that will benefit construction workers in this country and the people who employ them.
As a final and closing note, we're quite heartened to see our colleagues and industry partners from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers here today. We certainly support their pitch on the accelerated capital cost allowance. It's a game changer for them and a game changer in terms of employment for our members.
That's my submission.
Thank you very much.