Good afternoon.
My name is Kathleen Sullivan and I am CEO of Food and Beverage Canada, the national association representing Canada's domestic food and beverage manufacturing sector. I appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to discuss labour shortages in our industry.
Canada's food system is the foundation of this country's national food sovereignty. It contributes to Canada's national, provincial and regional economies; it supports our international trade goals; and it underpins local food production and food security.
Food and beverage manufacturing is at the centre of that food system. As part of Canada's critical infrastructure, my members operate almost 8,000 plants, generate $118 billion in annual sales and at peak capacity employ almost 300,000 workers. We are, in fact, the largest manufacturing employer in the country.
But today we are facing a destabilizing labour crisis. On average today, food plants are reporting structural vacancy rates of over 20%, and sometimes as high as 30% or more. These shortages have resulted in reduced food production, heightened animal welfare concerns, and significant emotional and physical pressure on or burnout in our existing workforce.
These labour shortages are now structural. They will continue even after the pandemic and, worse still, we are expecting the situation to deteriorate as companies anticipate significant retirements over the next five years.
We recognize and welcome recent commitments from federal and provincial governments to help address labour issues. That, of course, includes the $85 million in additional resources to assist in processing times at the departments of ESDC and IRCC, but the truth is that these initiatives will take some time to roll out and they won't provide the relief we need in the immediate term.
We were very pleased to see that Minister Bibeau and Minister Qualtrough's mandate letters acknowledged the serious labour challenges in agri-food, and we asked them to develop a labour strategy to address persistent and chronic shortages in the agriculture and food processing sectors. In fact, as an industry we have already stepped forward to play a leadership role in developing that strategy.
The Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Council, Canadian Federation of Agriculture and my organization have launched a project to develop a workforce strategic plan for agriculture and food and beverage manufacturing to address chronic labour issues in our sector, but as food and beverage manufacturing focuses on the future, we also need relief today.
Since last fall, my organization has been leading a coalition of 11 industry associations that have developed a proposal for an emergency foreign worker program to support industry through this immediate crisis. That proposal builds on existing programs within ESDC and IRCC and will allow for additional foreign workers to come to Canada over the next 18 to 24 months to support our sector while also offering them real pathways to permanent residency.
In closing, I would like to acknowledge the dedication of everyone in Canada's food system over the past two years as they have worked to keep the food supply chain operating. Working together, they have continued to ensure that Canadians have access to Canadian food. It is imperative that we now provide them with the support to ensure that work can continue.
I look forward to answering any of your questions.
Thank you.