Evidence of meeting #136 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was apprenticeship.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
This has been very helpful, so I want to thank all three presenters today.
I think we realized that we want to fill jobs. We want to make sure that Canadians get first crack at those jobs, that we're not suppressing Canadian wages, and that that has to be the essence of this. We want to make sure that new Canadians are covered under the same health and safety protections that our own workers have, but we have to provide employers with the people they need to be competitive.
It's about finding a Canadian, training a Canadian, or creating a Canadian.
Of the 350,000 new Canadians, 100,000 come to Ontario and 60,000 come to Toronto. What are your members doing to engage those people?
I'll ask CFIB first.
12:15 p.m.
Vice-President, National Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business
The youth are adapting to using online job boards. Before, we talked about knowing someone's—
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
12:15 p.m.
Vice-President, National Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business
A question about immigrants is timely. Just yesterday, I met with In-TAC, the International Talent Acquisition Centre. They deal with tens of thousands of new immigrants to Canada. We are pitching a pilot, essentially, where we approach them and the pipeline of new immigrants. They have to have those individuals consider entrepreneurship as a career.
The description they gave me yesterday was that they come in through our immigration system as a skilled worker, but they also are a hidden investor. Many of them were successful entrepreneurs in their home countries, so they come into a business to potentially fill those labour needs of a small business, but then will potentially also move on into the Canadian economy as entrepreneurs.
We're trying to get at both of them.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
How many of your members in the GTA would know about the services provided by Rosemarie's group?
12:15 p.m.
Vice-President, National Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business
I don't have data on that. I could try, but if I had to wager, I would say it's probably low.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Being an amateur Matchmaker.com kind of guy, you would think there would be a flow of information between.... You guys do such an exceptional job of reaching out to your membership, you would think that flow would include making these people aware.
We talk about communicating some of the programs and opportunities out there; it's everybody's responsibility to do that.
Robert, you brought up some great points too. Do you know how many of your members use the apprenticeship incentive grant?
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
No, you don't. Or the incentive grant for women?
The data Rosemarie has shared of the number of women in the trades is embarrassing. It is. We can all agree on that regardless of.... It's four point some per cent for women and 1.9% for indigenous.... If those programs are out there, we have to do a better job of getting that information to those employers.
12:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Ontario Construction Secretariat
I'm part of Rosemarie's organization. We had a meeting yesterday. Our organization is also partnering with.... A number of different trades are outreaching.
When I was with the painters training centre, the Ontario Industrial and Finishing Skills Centre, we used to do a pre-apprenticeship program in partnership with the YWCA.That's been ongoing. We would put 20 women each year into pre-apprenticeship for the painting trade. It's gone to 40 now. A number of pre-apprenticeship programs are targeting primarily women right now. Any kind of a racial...is not going on.
12:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Ontario Construction Secretariat
A lot of trades are recognizing the value of having that market.
I'd like to answer your earlier question about how we are getting to these communities. I know a number of unions are hiring people. Let's say I know Ivan Dawns; he's Jamaican. They wanted to get into the Jamaican community. You hire a business agent who's Jamaican and he recruits. Then it becomes this guy's brother, cousin—that opens that door. Or they wanted to get into the Turkish community. They hired a guy who was Turkish. They speak the language; he was born there; he was a new immigrant; he was a tradesperson. That's how you get into those communities.
12:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Ontario Construction Secretariat
Yes, that's how you get into those communities.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
No, sorry, sir. We can come back. We have lots of time.
MP Falk, please, you have five minutes.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
Thank you all for being here today.
I always find this kind of conversation about the trades interesting. I would be really interested to know how it differs regionally across Canada. I was born and raised in Saskatchewan. The small city I was born in was basically built on the trades. We are an oil and agriculture community, as is my whole riding.
I am a power engineer. I have my fourth class steam ticket. I don't know if this is a family thing, but I was always taught to get a trade first and then go to university. You get your ticket first. No one can take your ticket away. Go to university, find out you can't get a job and then you've got.... Seriously. That's how it was talked about in school.
I always have a ticket, which gives me this knowledge. Power engineering is electrical, plumbing, instrumentation, turbines, generators and boilers—I have an understanding.
12:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Ontario Construction Secretariat
I have a job for you in Toronto if you want.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
It's interesting to me because that's how I was taught by my parents and school. It was encouraged in school as well.
We're talking about the education component of teaching our children that this is something they can do. If parents aren't on board anyway, is that a successful way of trying to get children into the trades?
This kind of happened to me, except it was the reverse. My father was a power engineer and I ended up marrying a power engineer. If it wasn't for me going to school and taking classes.... I will agree that you need to be smart for math, physics, chemistry and all of that. You actually have to be able to...especially when you get into electrical or that kind of stuff.
How do we educate parents?
12:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Ontario Construction Secretariat
Can I answer that question? I am from Winnipeg, so I am originally a westerner, too.
My parents and my extended family were all immigrants who came in the fifties. Most of them went into the trades. Growing up, most of my friends' fathers were in the trades. It's a different culture. We're talking now of the greater Toronto and Hamilton area; we're not talking about the rest of Canada.
You raise a very valid point. The problem is that parents aren't encouraging their sons and daughters to get into the trades because they really don't understand how good they are.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
How do we change that at the parental level?
12:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Ontario Construction Secretariat
We do get some parents at our event, Future Building. We don't get very many, but we do get some. We actually had a mother who was dragging her son there, who had finished high school and was not working anywhere. She dragged him in and took him to all the different trades and asked which one he wanted to do because he needed to get to work. He was sleeping in the basement.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
Yes. That is how it is where I am from. This is what I mean—that it's regionally different across Canada.