Human Resources Committee on March 14th, 2012

[Marie Carter]

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.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Okay, because I think there has been....

[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.

[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?

[Marie Carter]

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.

[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?

[Marie Carter]

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.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

And that was successful?

[Marie Carter]

Yes, it's been great.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Okay. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Thank you.

Madame Perreault, go ahead.

[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?

[Marie Carter]

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.

[Manon Perreault, NDP, Montcalm, QC]

From the foreign students who come here to study, do many of them go back to their home countries?

[Marie Carter]

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.

[Manon Perreault, NDP, Montcalm, QC]

In that case, do Canadian students who study engineering here also go abroad to work?

[Marie Carter]

Yes, for the most part.

[Manon Perreault, NDP, Montcalm, QC]

Does that mean that very few engineering students will stay here in Canada?

[Marie Carter]

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.

[Manon Perreault, NDP, Montcalm, QC]

But there are Canadian students who study here and go abroad to work.

[Marie Carter]

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.

[Manon Perreault, NDP, Montcalm, QC]

What draws our engineering students to go work in other countries?

[Marie Carter]

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.

[Manon Perreault, NDP, Montcalm, QC]

So it is not a question of remuneration.

[Marie Carter]

No. They want to travel.