Evidence of meeting #81 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was investments.
A video is available from Parliament.
6:40 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Mining Association of Canada
Still, it's still uneven, and we also get examples from other member companies at other mines where service continues to be unreliable.
6:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hoback.
Mr. Marston, go ahead, please.
6:40 p.m.
NDP
Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and to all of our friends here. Thank you for waiting for us. You get to see another part of our lives. We're interrupted quite regularly.
Mr. Gratton, you testified that your industry employs over 300,000 people and that in the future you're anticipating the need for about 140,000 more. Am I correct?
6:40 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Mining Association of Canada
Yes, that's right.
6:40 p.m.
NDP
Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
In your testimony earlier, I certainly was pleased to hear your outlook for our first nations people. In our pre-budget hearings last year, we heard quite a bit about the need for employing the first nations people. Does your industry use temporary foreign workers? If so, what is the percentage of that 300,000?
6:40 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Mining Association of Canada
I don’t have the number for you, but I will say that in general the industry has not used the temporary foreign worker program all that much. They are using it more now than they used to because the situation is so severe. Teck, for example, has brought in workers to their coal mines. The oil sands have brought in workers. By and large, it has been a largely underutilized source of employment.
6:40 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Mining Association of Canada
Honestly, I wouldn't know. I don't have an answer.
6:40 p.m.
NDP
6:40 p.m.
NDP
6:40 p.m.
Senior Vice-President, Petroleum Services Association of Canada
We use some, but not very many. The reason is that the nature of the work is responsive to customer demand from the oil and gas companies, so they don't get a lot of notice, and the process, traditionally, has been very time-consuming. A lot of service companies reach a considerable size before they ever get any HR expertise in-house, never mind some on the level of Kathy. They don't have the wherewithal to do it, and the process takes too long, so they can't.
We have been working with HRSDC and CIC on some of these things. Some of the other issues are with respect to the national occupation classification codes, the NOC codes. They’re fine if you're an engineer or welder in the trades, but if you are a fracking operator or coil tubing operator, you probably came out of high school and learned on the job, and then you're considered lower—
6:45 p.m.
NDP
Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Sorry, do you mean Canadian workers, or are you referring to foreign workers at this point?
6:45 p.m.
Senior Vice-President, Petroleum Services Association of Canada
Both.
Even Canadian workers, or abroad, probably just got a basic education and learned on the job because colleges and universities don't teach pumping services, for example. They are considered low-skilled or unskilled, and so it's even more difficult to bring those types of people into the country. The process is so long that most of our members just have not done it.
There are some that have tried. The larger multinationals have tried.
6:45 p.m.
NDP
Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
The reason I was asking is that we've had a lot of back-and-forth in the House relative to temporary foreign workers, and it crossed our economy as a whole. The position we've taken is that if we're going to invite people to come here to work—and in a lot of instances it's a fairly significant ongoing number, and it doesn't change a lot—we should invite them to come here to become Canadians and really take advantage of the skills they bring with them, as opposed to having that revolving door of having to go through the train-up. In a lot of instances, it's very job-specific training that's not in the education system where they come from.
That was the purpose of my question.
6:45 p.m.
Senior Vice-President, Petroleum Services Association of Canada
We agree.
When you are bringing in foreign workers, you want to be sure that they are the right people, they have the skills, and they are trained. In most cases, we would like to see them become permanent residents.
6:45 p.m.
NDP
Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Of course, the obvious thing that follows that, too, is the balance between the unemployed Canadians we have and what kind of help this government could give to specialized training or helping those people transfer to the areas where they're required. Is there a place for the federal government to be helping people to get to these jobs?
We heard earlier about taxation problems that people face, and that kind of thing, so we are listening.
6:45 p.m.
Senior Vice-President, Petroleum Services Association of Canada
Yes, that's exactly it, because if a company hires someone from, say, Ontario to work in northern Alberta, the plane ticket could be considered a taxable benefit. I don't think the employee leaving home considers they're enriched by that, so if they were not taxed on that and if it were neutral, it would encourage more Canadians to move to take the jobs we have to offer and not stay on unemployment.
I think the government would probably find that revenue-neutral, or maybe in their favour.
6:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Marston.
Madame Glover, s'il vous plaît.
6:45 p.m.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
Thank you, Mr. Rajotte.
Once again, I want to thank the witnesses for joining us today.
I will now address Ms. Kenny.
We know each other very well. I am really happy to see you here. Official language minority communities are very important. As I am the member for Saint-Boniface, I know how important it is to have the government's support. I have a few questions about your presentation.
You specify that risk capital investments are very important for francophone companies. An announcement was just made in budget 2012 about a $400-million venture capital investment. A $100-million amount was also earmarked for the Business Development Bank of Canada.
I would like to know, as far as you and your organization are concerned, what kind of criteria the government should impose to meet the demands of your community and help you.
6:45 p.m.
President, Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada
Thank you, Ms. Glover. I am also happy to see you again.
It must be understood that the needs of francophone communities are not the same as those of anglophone communities. I don't want to spend too much time on technicalities, but pursuant to part VII of the act....
6:45 p.m.
Conservative
6:45 p.m.
President, Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada
Yes, and I will answer very quickly.
6:45 p.m.
Conservative