In the 1980s, the federal advertising designed to promote higher education of young people effectively increased university enrollment. These ads, which were prominent in movie theatres and in magazines popular with youth, helped motivate many of us to pursue a university education. What we need now is a similar campaign to help promote the benefits of a career in the trades. This is happening somewhat already, but overall more needs to be done, particularly with teachers and guidance counsellors, who as a result of their own academic experience often hold a not impartial bias toward university for the brighter students.
Over the next eight years, it is estimated that the construction industry across Canada will need to find 320,000 new workers just to keep up with the pace of retirements and demand. Of the 320,000, nearly half of these positions will be filled through domestic training efforts, with the remainder coming through immigration. Now that we're talking about immigration, are we only inviting doctors and university individuals from out of this country to come in? Why don't we try to invite some trades in? That would help.
Clearly, immigration will be part of the solution, but we can also increase our efforts domestically to move the apprenticeship training, particularly among the under-represented groups, such as women and aboriginals. With employers, specifically construction employers, being asked to play an increasing role in the workforce training, many are struggling to find apprentices with the aptitude required for a career in the construction trades. By aptitude I mean the mind, the soul, and the heart. As a result, employers are being asked to play an even larger role in the development of apprentices, often helping them achieve the proficiency in math and language they need to complete their apprenticeship training.
The federal apprenticeship job creation tax credit has been a helpful aid to reduce some of the upfront employment costs associated with the apprenticeship training, although the maximum credit available needs to increase to keep pace with the cost of inflation. I don't believe it has changed in the past six years, right Bill? Currently, the maximum credit available is 10% of the annual salary of an apprentice, up to $2,000. Increasing the credit would certainly make apprenticeship training more attractive to smaller firms.
The apprenticeship incentive grant and the apprenticeship completion grant are both extremely useful inducements to encourage potential apprentices to consider a career in the trades; however, again, these grants need to keep up with the rising cost of education to remain relevant. The biggest challenge we find to the uptake of these programs is often the lack of awareness on the part of our members. The national advertising by government has helped, but what we really need is a more focused promotion at trade shows, in industry publications, and at the college level to broaden the knowledge and uptake of programs by industry and apprentices alike.
In closing, let me just say that we don't see any silver bullet—there is no magic wand and it won't happen overnight—that will remedy apprentice training issues in Canada.
What is needed is a more positive promotion of careers in the trades at the high school level. If we repeat it often enough, we will get more people in the trades. We need better training of teachers and guidance counsellors with regard to not only a skilled trades appreciation but also workforce demand, so that we avoid oversubscription in some trades while ongoing shortages remain in other trades. We need better and more positive advertising designed to change the opinion of parents and students regarding the trades. We need better promotion of the apprenticeship pathways and benefits of training to students and business owners. We need better employment promotion regarding government supports for business that engage in apprenticeship training. Finally, we need an increase in the currently available tax credit and grants, so as to realign them with the cost of living, and better and more incentives to train the underemployed, such as aboriginals, youth at risk, and older workers in transition.
With that I conclude my opening comments. I look forward to your questions in the five official languages of construction: Italian, French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese.