Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We have covered a lot of ground on this panel already, I can see. I will cover a couple of topics, but I've also heard in previous sessions a lot of discussion around temporary foreign workers. I'd be happy to talk about that in the questions, if need be.
It's my pleasure to be here on behalf of the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada to share our perspective on Bill C-31.
PCA represents and supports progressive unionized employers in Canada's construction industry. Our member companies employ approximately 30,000 skilled tradespeople, unionized primarily by the Christian Labour Association of Canada.
In western Canada, where we account for about 40% of all natural resource industry construction and where provincial regulations best support the hiring and training of young workers, registered apprentices comprise over 35% of the total PCA workforce. Despite our leadership in the recruitment and development of new tradespeople, PCA member companies, like most companies in Canada's construction industry, continue to struggle to find enough workers to meet growing demand. This is particularly pronounced in B.C., Alberta, and Saskatchewan.
It's in this context that l want to express PCA's strong support for the measures within part 6 of Bill C-31, and to share our thoughts on how these measures fit into a broader plan for addressing Canada's workforce development challenges both today and into the future.
It starts with promoting and enabling skills training and apprenticeship in Canada. There are numerous barriers to entry for Canadians considering a career in the trades. These barriers include cost, proximity to employers and training providers, and family circumstances.
The Canada apprentice loan announced in the 2014 budget is a welcome step towards tackling some of these issues. For many of our prospective employees, the loan will help cover a variety of hidden costs of transitioning from a low-opportunity career path or occupation into the skilled trades—the cost of new tools and equipment, transportation costs, and income supplementation during technical training, just to name a few.
It's our hope that once implemented, this program will be flexible enough to accommodate someone who decides to change trades early on in their apprenticeship journey. At the same time, the program should maintain enough focus to facilitate improved completion rates.
While these sorts of investments in apprenticeship will help the longer-term landscape, they will not help our companies address the immediate acute skills shortages we are experiencing in certain regions and occupations. We must also look abroad to fill those gaps.
PCA supports the balanced approach of the federal government reflected in Bill C-31 pertaining to immigration. Our members are particularly excited about the potential of the express entry system, not only for recruiting high-demand tradespeople, such as heavy equipment operators and welders, but also hard-to-find corporate professionals, including engineers, project managers, and estimators. We'll continue to work closely with the federal government on the development and implementation of this new system.
I do want to highlight one other area around which we believe more can and should be done; namely, to better facilitate the mobility of workers in Canada from regions of high unemployment to regions of low unemployment. One solution that we believe the federal government should take a closer look at is the creation of a work travel grant or a lump sum training and mobility grant accessible through the EI system. Mobility grants allow a person who is unemployed in one area of the country to utilize future employment insurance benefits in the form of a lump sum payment in order to relocate to another area of the country where workers are needed. The funds advanced from the EI payments would then be used to fund job search, training, and relocation costs.
In conclusion, PCA thanks the committee for this opportunity to share our views on Bill C-31. I'd be happy to take any questions you have.