Human Resources Committee on Nov. 10th, 2006

[Tony Martin, NDP, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Thank you very much.

I just very quickly want to say that I think we have a huge challenge in front of us, and a wonderful opportunity, actually. I personally think that a federal government that is awash in surplus cash—that's what we hear—should be willing to invest more generously in trying to take care of that. If we don't, we're going to end up with people getting sick, which is what the report out of Saskatoon said, and that will cost us in many ways in the end.

All of us have put forward proposals, like a national housing strategy, changes to EI, a national child care program, more investment in education, equity programs, and those kinds of things. It used to be that the federal government contributed 50% to the costs of those kinds of programs, then we went down to 30%, and now we're somewhere between 10% and 15%. Where do you think the federal government should be in all of that? That's for any of you.

[Ken McKinlay]

I don't know. Let me look at the books.

It's tough. It's really the funding sources, and that's where we need all levels of government working together. What should the levels be? Let's work it out and get at it. What are the priorities?

Everybody seems to have different priorities. Well, this is a big country. It's very hard to start saying how much you should spend on education in this province versus that province. Unless there's a plan somewhere in each province as to how they're attacking it, and then as to how to get the feds and the provinces together....

I don't envy your positions for the future, but as you say, opportunity is here. So we'll throw it back to you. Get at it. Get everybody at the table so that we can get some strategies going and get some money going.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Ms. Yelich has just one last question.

[Lynne Yelich, Conservative, Blackstrap, SK]

In the fairness of time, if each of you wants to leave us with one message today, I would like to give you a really quick opportunity to give us 30 seconds or 45 seconds, like they give us in question period.

Go ahead, Bev.

[Bev Duncan]

I congratulate you on what you're doing. It's a big job, and I really hope that what you do accomplishes getting all of our people employed, or as many people employed who can be employed. It's going to take a big education swing.

When I go to a meeting and I have chamber people there and they ask me why I'm there as a CEO, my response is that in order to get people employed, I have to be where the employers are. I think it's still quite sad when we have to explain why we're at a chamber meeting.

So good luck.

[Ken McKinlay]

For the residential industry, we're behind the eight ball. We need the human resource strategic plan approved for funding. We have to develop our training system within your apprenticeship system that's there now, and also in colleges or other training centres if the training isn't there, to serve our industry for the future.

We are not like commercial. Commercial has its system. We want to use it where we can, but in residential—half of everything constructed in Canada, if not more now with renovation—we have a lot of work to do. But we need some money for that strategic plan so that we can get at the job. We're working as hard as we can locally and provincially with our apprenticeship people, but we need to make sure this is coordinated across Canada too.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you, Mr. McKinlay.

We'll get one final comment from Mr. Hanley.

[Mark Hanley]

I think our labour market demand and supply issues are at a crossroads in our country. We think all levels of government need to spend time working together on those solutions. When they do, wonderful things are going to happen, as demonstrated through our Workplace Partners Panel, where we had more than several hundred stakeholders commenting on these issues from an industry perspective. Industry needs to be leading the way in which the system is organized, and that includes both business and labour, but we think there's a tremendous amount of work for you to do with your provincial and municipal counterparts in terms of how to best do that.

In Saskatchewan in particular, because the federal government spends an extraordinary amount of money on services for aboriginal people and we have the highest level of aboriginal population—not the highest number, but the highest level—obviously we know that will need to be done in an even more highly coordinated strategic fashion in the future. That has not been particularly successful in the past. It needs to be in the future, or we're going to be dealing with even more social and political problems than the labour market problems that we currently see today.

That's the message I would leave.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you, Mr. Hanley.

Some of the things we have heard about as we've crossed the country are the whole issue of leadership at the federal level, working with provinces, and of course working with the private sector. As I said, that's really bringing three different levels together, without even mentioning the municipal and some of the other levels of government that sometimes exist.

Just before we wrap up, I do want to thank all the witnesses once again for being here and for taking time with us on what we feel is a very important issue. I know you feel it's important as well.

Mr. Lessard, I know you had another comment. You had talked to the clerk about some comments and had asked for a little time before we wrap up today.

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

Yes. I can speak in the presence of the witnesses, Mr. Chairman. The committee travelled and I think the experience was quite educational and provided an opportunity to gauge people's opinion. Earlier, you commented, and rightly so, on how the staff had organized our trip in a highly professional manner. As chair, you thanked the team members.

I just want to say how much I appreciate the work they did, and that goes for the staff person in charge of organizing our itinerary, the clerks, the editing team, the translators, in short, everyone. I think it's important to mention them and to praise the very professional way in which they did their work.

I have travelled extensively in the past, in similar circumstances, and this trip compares very favourably to my past experiences. A tip of the hat to the entire team!

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you, Mr. Lessard.

As I said before, it's a tough job to make us look good, but they work hard anyway.

With that, the meeting is adjourned.