Great. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My name is Kevin Lee. I'm the CEO of the Canadian Home Builders' Association, and with me is Jack Mantyla, our national coordinator on education and training.
Thank you for inviting us here today. I want to focus my remarks on the Canada apprentice loan.
In 2012, the residential construction and renovation industry supported 845,000 jobs nationwide and generated $45 billion in wages for Canadians, for total economic activity attributed to our sector at $120 billion. I provide these numbers to illustrate the importance of residential construction in generating jobs and wages here in Canada. Canada's housing market has a strong demand for skilled tradespeople, a demand that is currently not being met, and this problem is going to be exacerbated in the future.
Statistic Canada's unemployment to job vacancies ratio for the construction sector, published in March, show that the number of job vacancies has been trending upwards over the past few years. This is a direct function of skilled workers retiring from the sector, and an insufficient supply of workers coming to fill these positions.
We're currently working with BuildForce Canada to finalize a residential construction industry labour market information report, but I can tell you that the preliminary results are showing that between now and 2023, over 100,000 vacancies will need to be filled in the residential construction industry alone.