Human Resources Committee on March 3rd, 2022

[The Chair (Mr. Robert Morrissey (Egmont, Lib.)), Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

I call the meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number 12 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of November 25, 2021. Members will be attending in person in the room and virtually. Those attending virtually have the option of using the “raise hand” function to notify me. Members in the room should simply indicate by raising your hand.

Those attending in person must follow the pandemic protocols that are in place, and changing on a weekly basis. I expect those members to do that. As the chair, I will enforce these measures for the duration of the meeting, and I thank members in advance for their co-operation.

To ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules to follow. Members and witnesses may speak in the official language of their choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of floor, English or French. If interpretation is lost, please inform me immediately, and we will ensure interpretation is properly restored before resuming the proceedings.

The “raise hand” function is at the bottom of your screen. For members participating in the room, please keep in mind you should raise your hand to get my attention. Before speaking, please wait for me to recognize you by name. Those in the room, your microphone will be controlled as normal by the proceedings and verification officer. When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. When not speaking, your mike should be on mute. A reminder that all comments should be addressed through the chair. With regard to the speaking list, I have a speaking list that's been provided, and we will follow the speaking order.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), and the motion adopted by the committee on Thursday, February 3, 2022, the committee will commence its study of labour shortages, working conditions and the care economy.

I would like to welcome our witnesses to begin our discussion with five minutes of opening remarks followed by questions.

From the Department of Employment and Social Development, we have Karen Hall, acting associate deputy minister, strategic and service policy branch; Rachel Wernick, senior assistant deputy minister, skills and employment branch; Philippe Massé, director general, labour market information; and Pierre Therrien, director general, economic policy directorate, strategic and service policy.

We will begin with five minutes of opening remarks, and then we will open the floor for questions. This will be a one-hour session.

Ms. Rachel Wernick, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Rachel Wernick, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I am Rachel Wernick. I am the senior assistant deputy minister at ESDC.

I am pleased to join you today to provide an overview of labour and skills shortages affecting the Canadian economy.

Labour shortages are affecting many sectors and almost all regions of the country. As of December 2021, there were approximately 900,000 job vacancies across Canada, which is almost double pre-pandemic levels.

Some labour shortages are short term and are likely to be filled as the economy strengthens. Approximately two-thirds—or 64%—of current vacancies are in jobs that require high school or less. Many of these will be temporary as the labour market reopens. More than one-quarter of vacancies are in the food service, tourism and retail sectors.

Other shortages are a result of structural factors, such as our aging population and rising skills requirements. This is increasing shortages in key sectors such as construction, professional, scientific and technical services, as well as health care. These shortages will take longer to fill given the scarcity of highly qualified workers among the unemployed and the need for specialized training.

It's important to underscore that there are three sources of labour supply in Canada. The first is new entrants to the labour market, which are youth and immigrants. The second are groups under-represented in the labour market who are not fully participating. The third are those already working who need upskilling or re-skilling to adapt and to stay in the labour force longer. To address the labour shortages facing the Canadian economy, it will be necessary to draw on all three sources of labour.

Youth are our biggest source of new entrants to the labour market, with 4.9 million young jobseekers expected to enter the workforce by 2028. All youth benefit from support to successfully transition from school to work, but it is important to recognize that some youth face additional barriers, including indigenous youth and youth with disabilities.

The next source of new labour supply is from immigration. Accessing this supply of labour will require addressing barriers many newcomers face to securing jobs. These include inadequate language proficiency, difficulties obtaining recognition of foreign credentials and a lack of Canadian work experience. While temporary foreign workers play a critical role in filling jobs in the agricultural, food and fish processing sectors—in fact, 80% work in agriculture—it is important to underscore that they make up only 0.4% of the labour force.

The next source of supply is under-represented groups. Closing the gap in the labour market participation rate of under-represented groups could mean adding over two million new workers to the labour market.

Finally, three-quarters of those in the labour force of 2028 are already working. This is critical context, as labour shortages are not a purely numbers issue. It is also a skills mismatch issue. As the skills required for jobs continue to rise with the introduction of new technologies, most workers will need to upgrade their skills. As some jobs disappear, it will be important for workers to have access to training to upskill and re-skill so they can fill new and emerging opportunities.

As the committee will be putting a particular focus on the care economy, I would like to finish by highlighting some key facts about this sector. The impacts of COVID have been particularly concerning for care providers, including health care workers, personal support workers and child care workers who have been on the front lines of the pandemic.

According to recent Statistics Canada data for the third quarter of 2021, there were approximately 118,000 vacancies in the health care and social assistance sectors. Of those, around 23,000 were for jobs covering day care, youth, and personal support services.

While the health care sector overall recovered from the job loss due to the pandemic, some health occupations are still lagging. For instance, employment among child care workers is still 12.3% lower than in January 2020.

Addressing labour shortages in this sector will take some time given the scarcity of qualified workers among the unemployed and the need for specialized training. This challenge is compounded by difficulties in finding and keeping skilled people in these fields. In some cases, this is due to poor working conditions or low compensation. In other cases, it is because of challenging and costly foreign credential recognition processes and lengthy licensing requirements.

Recognizing provincial and territorial jurisdiction in this sector, the federal government is attempting to bring partners together on initiatives to help address the shortage of workers in the care economy.

The Government of Canada has taken concrete measures to help reduce shortages facing the health care sector. These investments include $420 million in 2021-22 to support provinces and territories in attracting and retaining early childhood educators and support workers through initiatives grants and bursaries for students studying early childhood education.

Over three years, $960 million has been allocated for the new sectoral workforce solutions program to help key sectors of the economy, including the health care sector. It funds industry-driven activities that support a diverse and qualified supply of workers. The program helps workers through training and re-skilling, and helps employers—particularly small and medium-sized ones—to attract and retain a skilled workforce.

Over three years, $38.5 million will be invested in a long-term and home care pilot, which is a project to test a new recruitment and training model for up to 2,600 supportive care assistants through a new micro certification. Of these, 1,300 are anticipated to go on to complete full personal support worker certification. The pilot will also explore how to improve consistency in training programs, required qualifications and core competency.

Finally, there has been an investment of $22 million for 20 projects through the foreign credential recognition program, which supports the integration of internationally educated health professionals, and nearly $10 million in foreign credential recognition loans, for which two-thirds of the borrowers were in the health sector.

We are continuing to work collaboratively with our federal partners and counterparts in provincial and territorial governments to help alleviate the pressures facing workers in the care economy.

We are here to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Wernick.

We'll now open the floor to the first round of questions, with Madam Kusie for six minutes.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses for being here today.

Ms. Wernick, I would be interested in knowing what more the department is doing to develop automation. What do you perceive is ESDC's role in stimulating automation to ease labour shortages?

[Rachel Wernick]

I would suggest that ESDC is supporting the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion. Our federal partner department, Innovation, Science and Economic Development, would be the department that has programs to invest directly in businesses.

What I would say about automation, as it is introduced, is that while it does displace low-skilled workers, it is being introduced predominantly for repetitive tasks, low-skilled work. It does still require skilled staff for its implementation, often its uptake and its use. While automation displaces some workers, it does create new skills requirements for others.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you.

You mentioned your work with Innovation, Science and Economic Development. Are you aware of any incentives for industries or employers to automate that ESDC, in coordination with Innovation, Science and Economic Development, might have currently?

[Rachel Wernick]

I don't have information on ISED programs at hand, but I would be happy to provide that in writing to the committee following this.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you.

Are there any programs available for automation in regard to skills development, be it programs for skills development to learn more about automation or incentives for automation in regard to skills development?

[Rachel Wernick]

Yes. The government, in budget 2021, made a significant investment in what we are calling the skills for success program, formerly referred to as literacy and essential skills.

This is training in what we call “foundational and transferrable skills”. One of the key focuses—one of the skills for success—is in fact digital skills. This is programming that will support employers in training workers to improve their digital skills, their ability to work with technology and to implement digitalization in the workforce.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you so much, Ms. Wernick.

Mr. Massé, I wanted to know where these one million new jobs that the government has repeatedly said have been created come from, please.

[Philippe Massé, Director General, Labour Market Information, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development]

I'm not aware of government statements about job creation. In our opening remarks there was a reference to job vacancies. Is that where you were headed?

We can certainly outline some of the key sectors where those vacancies are present. I'm not aware of any particular statements regarding new jobs created.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

We frequently hear in the House of Commons that one million new jobs have been created by this government. Looking at the information, it seemed more to me like this was just the natural recovery of the job market through the recovery of the pandemic.

Mr. Massé—

[Philippe Massé]

I might pass it to my colleague, Pierre, who could speak to that more.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Okay, yes.

[Pierre Therrien, Director General, Economic Policy Directorate, Strategic and Service Policy, Department of Employment and Social Development]

The information on the one million jobs comes from the Statistics Canada labour force survey. This survey is updated every month.

My understanding of your one million jobs is that, while we were in the middle of the pandemic, we had one million jobs below the level we had before the pandemic. Since then, we increased the level of employment, so we're back to where we were before the pandemic.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

It was the recovery. Okay, thank you.

Likewise, when the government talks about 106% employment, would you say that is from a reduced worker pool? The number would be higher because we have fewer employees now than we did at the beginning of the pandemic, since we've lost many to those.... I'm trying to get an accurate reflection of the 106% employment that we are hearing the government has.

It just seems to me that, if the workforce has shrunk, then it would require fewer workers to achieve 106% employment currently than it would have at the beginning of the pandemic.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

I'm sorry, Mrs. Kusie—

[Pierre Therrien]

I can add to that one.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

I'm sorry. The time has gone. You may be able to address that answer in a further question, Mr. Massé.

Now we go to Madame Ferrada for six minutes.

You have the floor.

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Wernick, as you know, Quebec set up a day care system many years ago. At the time, it was a way of attracting a workforce comprised mainly of women. However, we know that women were more affected by the pandemic.

In your view, how would the implementation of a national day care system help to address the labour shortage?

Do you see a connection between the two?

[Rachel Wernick]

I will answer your question very briefly and then give the floor to Ms. Hall, who is the subject-matter expert.

Quebec's experience showed us that the implementation of a universal day care system led to a significant increase of women's participation in the labour market. We therefore expect that greater access to day care will have the same effect in other regions.

Karen, do you want to add to that?

[Karen Hall, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Service Policy Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, if I may, I'm the associate assistant deputy minister, not the associate deputy minister. I just want to make sure that's correct for the record.

I thank the member for her question.

We expect a Canada-wide day care system to have a significant effect on Canada's labour market. We project that the new system could add 240,000 workers to the workforce. That's a long-term estimate, since this type of change takes time, but it is significant.

Of course, the system will need workers. That is the system's real foundation. It is essential for these workers to be well trained and to enjoy their work, so that they can provide quality care to children.

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

Thank you for those answers.

Earlier, you mentioned a $3.5‑million pilot project to work on long-term care issues. You wanted to test the program.

Are you working on any other pilot projects that focus on the labour shortage?

I'm very interested in finding out more about long-term care issues and the work you're doing with the provinces to help solve the labour shortage issue in this sector.

[Rachel Wernick]

I can give a basic description of this pilot project.

In the context of the pandemic, there was an astounding lack of workers, for all the reasons we know.

We tried to think of a way to quickly bring partners together to explore the possibilities of finding an innovative model to train and deliver more workers in a short time frame. It's a somewhat classic example, where the federal government takes the initiative to bring everyone together to work on something innovative. If it works, it creates something that the provinces and territories can replicate in their respective systems.

In this case, we tried to use everything we heard about training for these positions. People who were interested in doing the job didn't want to go back to school full time. We created a pilot project that tested intensive training offered partially online. Students could do it whenever they wanted. Then they had a work placement. That's something else that's very much in demand. People want to learn on the job rather than in a classroom.

This creates what is known as a micro-certification. This means that after online training and an internship, the individual becomes an assistant and can work with slightly less responsibility than if they had the full certification.

Half of the participants chose to continue their education and finished their certification. This innovative model has been recognized as a way to deal with staff shortages. It's an interesting pilot project to see if other training models can attract people. People who are still working and have mortgages to pay are often not ready to go back to school full time.

The other interesting thing about this pilot project...

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Madam Wernick, you could probably conclude that when answering another question. We are over time.