Human Resources Committee on Nov. 27th, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Mr. Hakim.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

You have gotten so much better at sharing technology. On the tailings technology that has been developed at Suncor, it seems to be that you understand the importance of working together on this stuff. Are you doing it with human resources?

[Shabbir Hakim]

From a human resource point of view, I can speak to that. Certainly, everybody is aware of the fact that there are significant pressures with respect to the availability of human resources. Regardless of the fact of where the folks come from, whether it's Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, or elsewhere, as most people know, Fort McMurray tends to be a place where a lot of people from Newfoundland and the Maritimes as a whole have gone.

Whether some things are being done from a business point of view, whether shutdowns are moved, I believe is your question.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Yes, it is.

[Shabbir Hakim]

Not necessarily. As you know, if there are planned turnarounds, obviously, plants can adjust and do certain things. However, a lot of these plants are getting older as time goes on and shutdowns do occur at different times. It could be an unplanned shutdown that happens. You have no control over that. Where it's possible, certainly, things are taken into consideration. Companies are staggering some of their shutdowns, recognizing that the workforce is not available in February, or March, or April.

We are looking at those kinds of options. Part of it is through this group that I represent, ACTIMS. It does exactly that. It gives us an....

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

When the committee travelled to Fort McMurray, one thing we heard from group after group is the issue of pace, pace in development, pace of investment. I'm wondering if the companies themselves are taking on that issue.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Perhaps we could have a fairly short response and we'll conclude with Mr. Hakim.

[Shabbir Hakim]

Quite frankly, in terms of whether the companies are taking that into consideration, absolutely, in terms of looking at workforce situations, as to what's available, what's going to be available. Whether it makes any difference in scheduling turnarounds, it's a different ball game altogether.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

With that, we'd like to thank the panel for presenting. We certainly appreciate your comments and suggestions.

We're going to ask the committee members to hold back as there is some committee business I want to talk to the members about.

Members of the panel are free to go.

We have just a few moments here, but there are a couple of points.

The previous panel was quite loaded in terms of the number of people presenting. I know we're trying to push this study a little too quickly. My thoughts are that we're probably not going to be able to conclude before we break, especially if we don't sit the Thursday before the break. The 14th is a Friday. We're probably going to be out of here Thursday evening, the 13th.

My suggestion would be to dispense with the meeting on the 13th, which is a Thursday. Maybe we could move some of those heavy panels to an extra panel when we come back, for one or two meetings. From what I have seen, there has been quite a bit of interest in this area.

We could hold one more meeting if there were some suggestions for witnesses and perhaps some who wanted to come but couldn't come for this session. You could plan to put them into the second meeting if we need to, but if we don't, we would conclude with one and accept the fact that we'll roll this study into the new year.

I would suggest we not sit Thursday, but I would like to see us complete the report we had on the skills shortages. We would propose to use about 45 minutes of the next meeting for that and the centennial flame issues. You might want to direct your mind to that.

Then we would have December 11, which is a Tuesday, and we're not sitting on Thursday, where we could possibly conclude that report, at least finish it off.

That would be my suggestion and if there's consensus to that, that's how we would instruct the clerk and the analyst to proceed. Is everybody okay with that?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

That's what we'll try to do.

Also, before you, you will find the witness list that we had proposed. It may change somewhat in light of what I've said and the request for the budget. We would need a motion that says, “That the proposed budget in the amount of $18,100 for the study of economic opportunities for young apprentices be adopted.”

[Brad Butt, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

I so move.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Is there any discussion on that? Are there any issues with the budget?

Ms. Leitch.

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

I have one question.

I'm not sure how other committee members feel about this, but it's quite expensive to be moving individuals around a lot. We do have the capability for video conferencing. Is this based on knowing that certain individuals absolutely will not be able to come and present to this committee? Have we looked at what our video conferencing capacities are?

If nothing else, it helps witnesses not have to disrupt their days and turn them totally upside down because they're spending time on an airplane.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

We'll get the clerk to answer that.

I might advise for the Saskatchewan-Alberta group of witnesses that were not able to testify because of the votes, we'll ask them to reappear by video conference. That is probably what we'll do.

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

This is Canada and it is the winter. The chances of individuals not being able, even physically, to get here because of the weather is another thing you should bear in mind.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Do you want to respond to that?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mrs. Isabelle Dumas]

If I have instructions from the committee that you prefer that I schedule a video conference, it's not a problem. I wasn't aware of that. Right now, if people could come, they would come to Ottawa. If they couldn't, I would offer video conferencing.

The other thing to keep in mind, though, is that we can only have two video conferences at the same time, one per committee. It depends on the availability of that service as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Any comments?

Ms. Charlton.

[Chris Charlton, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

I'm completely fine with the approach that you offer, video conferencing for people who otherwise aren't going to be able to get here. I think that's terrific.

With respect to the scheduling, though, I would encourage us as best as possible not to pile in witnesses like we did in the first panel today. It restricts the ability to ask the witnesses questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

I felt bad, too.

[Chris Charlton, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

I felt bad for them because if they are coming a long way....

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Exactly.

We're going to rejig the list to make it work better. I think we can do that. That's why we'll end up with one extra meeting, maybe two. It's a good point.

Does anybody else wish to comment on the video conferencing? It's probably something we should work toward and not make it difficult for people, particularly with winter travel, although it's always nice to have the witnesses appear in person.

Let's do what we've been doing and wherever we're able to offer video conferencing, let's encourage that.

Does anybody else wish to make a comment on that?

Mr. Daniel.

[Joe Daniel, Conservative, Don Valley East, ON]

Is it cheaper?

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

I would hope it's cheaper, for sure.

In today's technology, we probably should be moving toward mostly video conferencing and occasionally witnesses present, but maybe we're not there yet.