Evidence of meeting #29 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was engineering.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:15 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Engineers Canada
We don't have information on that. Our constituent members gather information on salaries, but I don't know that they specify one or the other.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
Mr. Andrews, if you could....
I understand the bells are now ringing. They're half-hour bells, so I would ask for unanimous consent to conclude with Mr. Andrews. Madame Perreault has a few questions. With that, we'll close. Are there any objections? If not, we'll carry on.
Go ahead.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
Have you done any research on the salaries of engineers over the last 10 years? Has it gone up very much? Has that been an issue?
5:15 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Engineers Canada
I actually do look at the salary reports, certainly for Ontario, because it's where I'm working and it's of interest to me personally. The salaries have gradually increased over the last 10 years. There hasn't been a particular stagnation in salaries for engineers based on the studies they've done.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
Okay.
This is the last question.
In the last part of your testimony you mentioned a working relationship with government on a certain initiative. I didn't catch exactly what you said there. Could you elaborate on that a little bit?
5:15 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Engineers Canada
We've worked over the last 10 years with HRSDC, with CIC, and DFAIT, actually, on all of our initiatives for what we called “from consideration to integration”, which was being better able to process, essentially, foreign-trained people into the profession.
5:15 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Engineers Canada
Yes, it's been great.
March 14th, 2012 / 5:15 p.m.
NDP
Manon Perreault NDP Montcalm, QC
Good afternoon. My question is for Ms. Carter.
Earlier you mentioned to my colleague that classrooms were really full. Are there a lot of Canadian students versus foreign students in those courses?
5:20 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Engineers Canada
I don't have the exact numbers with me of what the proportion is of Canadian students versus foreign students. It is a majority. It's not the same proportion as we have for medicine. I know they've got a higher proportion of foreign students than we do in engineering.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Manon Perreault NDP Montcalm, QC
From the foreign students who come here to study, do many of them go back to their home countries?
5:20 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Engineers Canada
Most of the engineers who come to go to school in Canada do return to their home countries. A small minority of them stay in Canada, but on the whole they do return to their home countries.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Manon Perreault NDP Montcalm, QC
In that case, do Canadian students who study engineering here also go abroad to work?
5:20 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Engineers Canada
Yes, for the most part.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Manon Perreault NDP Montcalm, QC
Does that mean that very few engineering students will stay here in Canada?
5:20 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Engineers Canada
Most of the people who study engineering in Canada stay in Canada. Most of the people who come from offshore would return to their home countries, but a proportion of them will stay in Canada.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Manon Perreault NDP Montcalm, QC
But there are Canadian students who study here and go abroad to work.
5:20 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Engineers Canada
Absolutely, yes, and there are some exchange programs with other countries where our students will then want to go and work in the other countries.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
5:20 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Engineers Canada
I would think the same thing. A lot of young people want to travel the world, and that's an opportunity to take their engineering skill and get a job in another country. A lot of them are working for Canadian firms, though.
5:20 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Engineers Canada
No. They want to travel.