Evidence of meeting #15 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was workers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Executive Director, Cultural Human Resources Council
The internship program is terrific. It is aimed at youth up to 29, and it fulfills a very important function. I think that it would be useful for the government--if it can, given jurisdictional issues--to support mentorships or something that would allow for this to happen for older workers. Mentorship is just another take on the same idea.
To respond specifically to your question about training, I think that yes, employers do have to recognize their role, and I think that is slowly changing, not only in our sector but, from what I hear, across the workplace.
I would draw your attention to the law of one percent in Québec, which is a wonderful law at the provincial level that requires contributions to a training pool at a certain masse salariale. I think it's salary levels of $1 million or more--anyhow, there are criteria for it. It provides a central training pool that ensures workers have access to training. This is a wonderful example that works really well in Quebec, and it has been extended to work in the case of self-employed workers as well.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Is that a matching program, meaning the employer, or is it strictly funded by the government?
Executive Director, Cultural Human Resources Council
It's one percent of their revenues.
Conservative
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Electricity Sector Council
I'd like to know the federal government's role in technology development in that context. One of the challenges for our businesses that engage in new technology--and I know Colette would agree with me--is that they're small people. They are trying to grow and develop their businesses. We certainly see this in the renewable sector. They can't sustain it themselves--they're busy trying to manage their businesses--and they can't find places where they can achieve training.
One of the areas in which the government can certainly support the development of new technologies is in the community college and university system, in support to post-secondary education through their work with the provinces; we find that our educational institutions are struggling to develop programming supports such as curriculum development for new technologies.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you very much.
That's it for the round of questions. Was there anyone else? We have a few minutes left. Does anyone have another follow-up question they want to go ahead with?
Yes, Madame Demers; you may have a quick question.
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. You are kind.
Ladies, as I mentioned earlier, we know that life expectancy has increased. For women, it is now 83, whereas for men, unfortunately for them, it is still 79. Despite that, I think most people retire from the workforce at 56, but in another job. That is the case for nurses and many other professions.
Is the same thing happening in your industries? Have you considered changing work shifts to enable people to remain in a job where they have acquired skills? Are you not facing a shortage of employees in some sectors because several contractors have been used by companies to do part of the work? That situation occurred in Quebec, at Bell Canada.
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Electricity Sector Council
I think there are a couple of pieces to that. Certainly for our business we have a complex organizational profile. One of our businesses that's a crown corporation attempted to look at a modified work program to retain older workers and ran straight into their province's superannuation act and realized that they'd have to change the superannuation act in the province to bring those workers back or to keep them on modified work. There are some complex issues if you are a crown corporation or a government-owned organization.
We also surveyed our employees. Do you know what they told us? They said most of them really didn't want to come back. They liked their work, we had great employee engagement scores, they were happy with the business, but they had other plans for after age 56--perhaps family, cottage, golfing, goodness knows, but they really thought it was time to move on.
One of our unions has developed a very effective program to bring back retired workers as contingent labour here in the province of Ontario where it's possible they didn't have the superannuation complexities. They've created a hiring hall and workers who are retired can sign up with the hiring hall. If the company needs a short-term employee replacement, they have somebody who already is known to the company--and importantly for our business, is also security-cleared, which is another challenge for us with internationally trained workers--and they can step right into the role. That has proven very successful. We'd like to see some opportunities for that model in other places.
Conservative
President, National Seafood Sector Council
We haven't taken a comprehensive approach to this across the nation, but I can say that a number of employers, especially in the larger firms, where they have key workers and want to keep them, will shift their duties to something more amenable to their age and station in life, and that way they maintain that corporate knowledge.
We also found we develop a lot of training products but we are not deliverers of the training. We have partnered with the community colleges and sometimes private sector individuals, especially in the remote regions, and many of the people.... CFIA inspectors become instructors, people with good industry experience become instructors, and they also become mentors for younger people, often on a part-time basis.
October 5th, 2006 / 12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Bloc
France Bonsant Bloc Compton—Stanstead, QC
I told you earlier that my riding is located in a rural area. It does not have oil sands or oil. Some of my constituents who used to work in sectors like textiles, shoes, and furniture have lost their jobs. They are 52 or 53 years old.
How many of you would be prepared to hire these people tomorrow morning if they had been retrained in another area, even if they are 50 or older?
President, National Seafood Sector Council
I believe if they were willing and able to work in our industry and could acquire the skills, that would be a wonderful opportunity for us. Wonderful.
Executive Director, Biotechnology Human Resource Council
That is the case in biotechnology. If we could show them what to do in terms of production, they would be hired.
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Electricity Sector Council
I would say there is definitely significant interest, particularly with trades positions. Everybody is short of trades positions. The re-skilling pieces are a really important one, and transition programs for workers are an area of interest we're actually trying to explore right now.
Executive Director, Canadian Automotive Repair and Service
In our industry we have a mentor-coach program, and these experienced people are incredible mentors and coaches because they know their trade inside out, so transferring and developing those skills has kept people at retirement age in our workforce longer, passing on their knowledge to the young people; it's very important.
Bloc
France Bonsant Bloc Compton—Stanstead, QC
I am happy to hear that, because one of my constituents sent out 78 resumés in three months and never received a call. I am going to take note of your names.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Okay.
I want to thank all the witnesses who came before us today. We want to thank you for taking the time. Once again, this committee believes employability is a pretty important issue, and certainly is a crisis that will continue to grow for the next few years. That's why we're undertaking this and moving forward. Your input has been greatly appreciated and noted, and as we continue to hear from other groups this will reinforce and also give us ideas to make recommendations to the government to move forward on it.
Thank you very much for being here today.
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
In relation to the motion the committee passed on Tuesday, can you tell me if that's been tabled in the House? If not, when will it be tabled?