Thank you, Merv.
This is a considerable concern for the industry. Through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada there exist 11 value-chain round tables that represent the different commodity groups for agriculture. Each of the chairs of those value-chain round tables has agreed that labour is such a concern that they have struck a labour task force. They're looking for input and support at the government level, not just from Agriculture Canada, but also from other stakeholders, such as HRSDC, CIC, and the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council, to provide insight and input into a consolidated approach on how to address this critical concern.
The council has done a lot of research around this very issue. Our mandate is specific: to address the HR needs of farm producers across Canada in different regions and across commodities. Through all of our research we have come up with three really relevant recommendations that I'd like to bring forward today.
First and foremost, we need a better and more accurate picture of the labour market in agriculture. Merv threw out some numbers. Stats Canada does some work in this area on the agricultural census, and those numbers are showing different pictures of this industry. We know that those pictures are not all that accurate, so we need to get a better handle on how many workers are employed in this industry.
There's a significant impact on Canada's GDP. We know that element, but we don't know so much about the labour force and shortages, other than we have forecast that there are significant vacancy rates. We need a better and more consolidated approach to gathering that information. By gathering that information we will have access to employers and better access to employees to support those organizations in their training. We can make policy decisions on longitudinal data that's accurate, rather than guesstimates.
So that's recommendation number one, which is very important to today's session.
Second is to increase the current supply of labour for agriculture in both skilled and unskilled occupations. This is critical. This is the exploration you're undertaking today. There are all sorts of things that can and should be addressed in doing so, such as career promotion and awareness; career pathing; linking student interests to careers in agriculture; and recognizing the vastness of those opportunities for those who are interested in biology, mechanics, physics, or business. There's training availability; helping to support school-to-work transitions that are so important to any sector of the economy; work experience programs; and linking labour supply and demand more effectively by matching students and workers with employers. There are all sorts of things that can be done with our stakeholders to address this issue for both skilled and unskilled occupations.
The third major recommendation is that this organization work toward supporting employers with their HR function. That means engaging stakeholders like the federal government departments of AAFC, HRSDC, and CIC on this matter; working with provincial governments for consolidation of their associated departments around agriculture, education, and economic development; working with educational institutions at the primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels; and working with federal and provincial industry associations, and of course with employers themselves.
The real thrust here is for us to establish credible and reliable information that employers can use to plan their businesses and ensure that small and large farm operations in all regions of Canada are well supported to find the talent they need, access those pools of labour that are very difficult to access, retain that talent along the way, and ensure that people are well skilled. That's the role of the sector council, and that's what we are endeavouring to do to assist with this very critical issue of labour shortage for this industry.
Merv, do you have anything further to add?