Thanks, Kevin. Those were good comments.
It's a pleasure to be here today. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to speak.
I had the opportunity on April 29 in Edmonton to participate in a labour market development agreement round table. It was a great session, I thought. From a national perspective, it's interesting that while our country may not indicate it has a labour shortage, if one considers the employment rate, we find that in the residential construction industry we're having a great deal of trouble finding the right people with the right skills at the right time. As well, with the demographic trends moving along—we all know about those—labour shortages of skilled people are predicted to get much worse.
When I travel across the country in my role on the CHBA executive, it's eminently clear to me how different the employment situations are in different regions, and how important it is that our system accommodate and account for those regional differences.
For background, we are a 900,000-job industry generating over $120 billion in economic activity. However, in the next decade we will see approximately 100,000 job vacancies to fill. That means our industry and government need these LMDA dollars to be as effective as possible in getting Canadians employed, and perhaps more importantly, though, not just into jobs but into careers.
Today we offer the following recommendations for your consideration.
Make information on all LMDA-funded programs, provincial and federal, and the results of these programs easily accessible for review and sharing by employers, allowing for as much flexibility as possible in labour market development agreements in order to accommodate the regional and sector-specific needs and opportunities. This is something that I think came up in Edmonton as well.
Second, ensure that all training and support programs are available to trades and occupations working or seeking work in the residential construction industry. This would include promotional efforts funded through LMDAs.
Third, ensure that residential trades and occupations are included in the labour market information being used by those designing the LMDA-funded programs. Where apprentices are concerned, this includes, as Kevin mentioned, not only the Red Seal but all provincially designated trades as well.
In addition, it should be noted that our industry employs many people in non-apprenticeable jobs, many of which serve as entry-level positions into the industry and offer long-term career opportunities. In fact, my son is just going through that now. He has now moved into the apprentice program, but he started off in a non-apprenticeable trade and he's building a career out of this.
I'd also like to add that in our Nova Scotia consultation, a common theme stressed around the table was the need to reduce bureaucracy and reduce the barriers that stop individuals from accessing training. For example, a person having to wait six to eight weeks for employment insurance benefits is a barrier to training. A solution could be to bridge that six-to-eight-week gap that apprentices must wait for EI by having the grant dollars assignable to the employer. This would allow the employer to pay the apprentice during regular pay periods since they know the money is coming.
With those goals set out and the information on LMDA-funded programs in hand, we trust that our sector can play a greater role in helping to direct LMDA-funded programming, as well as connecting employers in our sector with various opportunities to help employ even more underemployed and unemployed Canadians. This in turn will help address the pending shortage of skilled workers in our industry.
Thank you.