Human Resources Committee on March 31st, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Shields and Mr. Long.

Madame Chabot.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

My question is for Dr. Holden, from the Canadian Dental Association.

I want to understand correctly. I understand that there is a labour shortage among dental hygienists. I know the situation in Quebec. As far as training in Quebec is concerned, it is post-secondary training, so no one can call themselves a dental hygienist overnight. It's qualified training.

In terms of the labour shortage, can you break that down by region or by province? Is the labour shortage uniform across the country or do some provinces have different problems?

[Dr. Richard Holden]

It is regional: It's provincial and it's territorial. That's the way it's.... Just to be clear, dental assistants are different from dental hygienists. Dental hygienists usually require post-secondary education—university or college—but dental assistants usually spend less time in school than do dental hygienists. We estimate that there are probably 26,000 to 29,000 dental assistants in Canada, but they're unregulated in Ontario and Quebec. There are about 20,000 certified and licensed, and for hygienists it's about 30,000. There's probably a bit of a manpower challenge with both, but certainly, dental assisting is critical, because I know first-hand that some dentists can't adequately work without a dental assistant next to them.

Dr. Burry, I don't know if you want to elaborate on any of that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Could we have a short answer, Dr. Burry?

[Dr. Aaron Burry]

I think you've highlighted a number of issues, namely that there are differences between provinces in Canada.

A second part of the problem is primarily the changing habits of dental hygienists, largely as a result of the pandemic. Some people have decided to reduce their hours or even leave the profession altogether. As Dr. Holden pointed out earlier, right now it's a two‑ to four‑year professional training program, depending on the province. There's less pressure at the moment, but there is a shortage of staff in Canada's dental centres, even in terms of office staff.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Chabot.

Madame Zarrillo, you can ask one question, please. We're getting to the end of our first group.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question is for Ms. Yalnizyan. It's around the comments that were made around temporary agencies and on-demand apps.

You mentioned the misclassification of workers and the risks of these agencies and on-demand apps. Could you elaborate on that a little bit, please?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Give a short answer, please.

[Armine Yalnizyan]

I believe you heard from Linda Silas of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions during your second hearing.

In the testimony I've read from your hearings, she was the first person to mention how nurses are burned out and leaving the hospital sector because they have no control over their working hours. They are joining temporary agencies.

In places like rural Ontario, there is no access to home care. The local integrated health networks are unable to provide access to home care. Basically, as soon as you get over 100 kilometres away from a hospital, you don't get access to home care. I mean, you're on a publicly funded list, but you don't get access to home care.

Businesses are entering this arena with on-demand apps for home care and they're filling a need. About 12,000 people are registered with one on-demand app.

These are precisely the workforce allocation techniques that are moving people away from being considered employees covered by protections.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Yalnizyan.

[Armine Yalnizyan]

We'll talk.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. Can I just ask that the end of that answer come in paper format? Could she send that later?

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Yes, that would be very good, Madame Zarrillo.

Madame Yalnizyan, can you provide that to the committee in a follow-up in writing? That would be most appreciated.

Thank you to all of the witnesses in this first grouping for appearing and for your testimony before the committee. It is most appreciated. Thank you.

We will suspend for a few minutes and change to the second group.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Committee members, we will resume with the second group of witnesses.

I would like to welcome the witnesses for the second group of today's committee hearing. I would ask you to keep your opening statements to five minutes or less as we are time constrained.

From the Canadian Home Builders' Association, we have Kevin Lee, chief executive officer. We also have Mike Collins-Williams, member and chief executive officer of the West End Home Builder's Association. From the Conseil de la transformation alimentaire du Québec, we have Dimitri Fraeys, vice-president, and Isabelle Leblond, corporate director. From Food and Beverage Canada, we have Kathleen Sullivan, chief executive officer.

We will begin with the Canadian Home Builders' Association for five minutes.

Gentlemen, whoever is starting may go ahead.

[Kevin Lee, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Home Builders' Association]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's Kevin Lee here. I'm the CEO of the Canadian Home Builders' Association.

CHBA is the voice of Canada's residential construction industry. We represent some 9,000 member firms from coast to coast, including home builders, renovators, trade contractors, product and material manufacturers, and building suppliers and services. CHBA is one association working at three levels—nationally, provincially and locally. We have over 50 constituent associations at the local and provincial levels.

I am joined here today by my colleague Mike Collins-Williams, CEO of the West End Home Builders' Association, our constituent association in the Hamilton-Halton region. Mike will be bringing some local context to our opening remarks and to any questions that the committee may have.

As you may know, our industry is experiencing chronic labour shortages like so many others are. It's something that we faced prior to the pandemic. These labour shortages are causing delays in construction of much-needed supply, with 71% of our membership facing those delays, according to our housing market index.

Approximately 20% of our labour force is set to retire over the next decade. That means the sector will need to recruit more than 148,000 new workers to keep pace with retirements and demand. However, only about 107,000 of those workers are expected to be available from traditional sources, leaving a shortfall of about 30%. A large portion of new recruitment will therefore need to come from groups traditionally under-represented in the construction labour force, including women, indigenous people and new Canadians.

I should note that the data for this comes from BuildForce Canada, a national industry-led organization that represents all sectors in construction to support labour market development in the industry. Unfortunately, the funding that BuildForce normally receives to develop its LMI under the sectoral initiatives program at ESDC was denied this year, as it was for many LMI organizations in different sectors. BuildForce is now having to reapply under a new initiative, where again its funding is uncertain. I'd like to point out that at a time when the home construction industry, like many others, is facing serious labour challenges, it's important that we get these LMI funding mechanisms back in place.

Regarding actions to address the skills shortages themselves, CHBA asks that the government continue all actions to promote careers in skilled trades, to support training and to provide financial supports to companies and individuals with respect to skilled workers. A good example is the new Canadian apprenticeship service. Our association is continually working to address the skilled trades gap, and government supports of this nature are very beneficial.

Given the shortfall that we expect in labour from domestic pools, CHBA is asking the government to improve the immigration system for skilled workers through permanent immigration options. This can be done by enhancing the selection of immigrants with skilled trades credentials or construction experience to ensure that the residential construction sector will receive its proportionate share of newcomers. It's also critical that skilled labour allocations for immigration be increased and that pathways from temporary workers to permanent workers be streamlined.

CHBA is also working on a new initiative to increase our renovation industry’s capacity to adapt homes for aging in place, a key support to seniors and the health care system. I’d be happy to expand on that if it is of interest to the committee.

I'd like to pass it over to my colleague Mike to say a few words.

[Mike Collins-Williams, Chief Executive Officer, West End Home Builders' Association]

Thank you, Kevin.

The issues that Kevin spoke about at the national level are very much at play in the Hamilton region and across the west end of the Golden Horseshoe. Ontario's residential construction industry is expected to rise by 4% over the coming decade, and potentially much more if we are to make up ground catching up on our housing supply shortfall—an issue that is now thankfully well recognized in Ontario and across the country.

To achieve the necessary growth in housing starts, Ontario must remain focused on replenishing our residential construction labour force, an astounding 22% of which is expected to retire over the coming decade. As the last of the baby boomers are expected to be 65 years old by 2029, Ontario’s residential construction sector is expected to see almost 52,400 workers exit the industry to retirement.

Due to an aging population and increased competition for talented youth amongst the province’s industries, attracting new workers for careers in construction is going to be challenging. Based on historical trends, Ontario is expected to bring in 42,732 new entrants from the local population aged 30 and younger, a pace that's expected to lag departures due to retirement each and every year over the scenario period.

Should recruitment success not increase, the province could be looking at a recruitment gap of almost 17,700 workers by 2030. We are already seeing the impacts of these labour shortages. The CHBA housing market index that Kevin referenced in his remarks is showing construction delays in Ontario of 11 weeks due to labour and supply chain issues.

I won't repeat the recommendations Kevin provided, but suffice it to say that those same recommendations certainly would apply in the Hamilton area.

Thank you very much. We look forward to answering any questions you may have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you.

Mr. Fraeys, from the Conseil de la transformation alimentaire du Québec, you have five minutes.

[Dimitri Fraeys, Vice-President, Innovation and Economic Affairs, Conseil de la transformation alimentaire du Québec]

Thank you.

My name is Dimitri Fraeys and I am the vice-president of innovation and economic affairs at the Conseil de la transformation alimentaire du Québec, the CTAQ. I am accompanied by my colleague, Ms. Isabelle Leblond, who is a corporate director at Olymel.

The CTAQ is the main business association in the food and beverage processing sector in Quebec. The CTAQ is a federation of 14 sectoral associations in Quebec. In Quebec and in Canada, the food and beverage processing industry is the largest manufacturing employer, with 75,000 jobs in Quebec and 300,000 jobs in Canada.

The food and beverage industry is facing a major labour shortage crisis. Vacancies are on the rise, ranging from 20 to 40% depending on the plant. Food and beverage manufacturing was already experiencing labour problems prior to the COVID‑19 pandemic, but the pressure of the pandemic has amplified the situation, and the sector now needs an urgent solution.

Despite aggressive recruitment initiatives to fill vacancies, it has been impossible to find enough Canadians to fill jobs in food and beverage manufacturing. Recruiting staff is extremely difficult. While other sectors are also facing labour problems, we are now all competing for the same workers, who are becoming increasingly scarce.

The inability to maintain a stable workforce impacts on food security, economic recovery and animal welfare, and it undermines the sector's ability to sustain a national agriculture and food system. Without enough workers, companies are already abandoning certain product lines, halting production and imposing overtime, leading to the exhaustion of a workforce already under additional strain from the pandemic. In some cases, companies simply postpone expansion plans, and it is not uncommon for family members to be involved in plant operations to keep production going.

While food and beverage processing is only one of many sectors experiencing labour shortages, the inability to meet current needs will impact national food security and affordability, as well as the ability of Canadians to easily access the food they want. An increase in the cost of food will be an additional challenge due to inflation, which has already increased the cost of living.

At a time of declining global food supply, it is imperative that Canada increase food production and processing so that it can share its foodstuffs with countries that are not so fortunate. The temporary foreign worker program helps fill this labour gap. This program is a lifeline for companies that are stretched to the limit.

This program should become permanent, since demographic curves indicate that the labour shortage will continue until at least 2030. We're concerned with processing times. It takes between eight and 10 months from the filing of the labour market impact studies, the LMIAs, to the arrival of the temporary foreign workers. It takes four to five months to analyze the LMIAs and three to six months to obtain visas.

For Quebec, processing times are even longer, up to one year, as companies must recruit workers before filing LMIAs. Agricultural operations are exempt from visas because their workers come from Mexico or Guatemala. However, Quebec-based processing companies recruit employees from French-speaking regions, such as North Africa and Madagascar, which do not have this exemption, and that lengthens processing times.

We propose a few solutions to speed up the process.

First, it should be possible to file LMIAs per factory, which would allow a large number of workers to be grouped on the same document. Fewer LMIAs mean less work for analysts and a faster analysis process.

Secondly, companies should be allowed to use the assessment time of these LMIAs to recruit employees. This is a problem that particularly affects Quebec.

Third, agreements should be made with French-speaking countries to expedite visas. This is already the case for Mexico and Guatemala for access to farms.

Fourth, a trusted employer category should be created for companies that have been filing LMIAs regularly for five years and renewing them every year. What we are proposing is the equivalent of the Nexus program or a fast-tracking of the immigration process. That way, companies will no longer have to wait for the famous analysis process that can take four to six months.

Fifth, the maximum number of foreign workers should be increased to 30%, particularly in Quebec, which already has a special agreement at 20%.

We thank you for this opportunity to speak to you, and we are ready to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Fraeys.

Now we go to Madam Sullivan for five minutes.

[Kathleen Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer, Food and Beverage Canada]

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.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Madam Sullivan.

We will now open the floor for questions beginning with Madam Kusie, for six minutes.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I thank the witnesses for being here today.

Ms. Sullivan, as you mentioned, Food and Beverage Canada, along with other associations, recently produced a proposal to government called the emergency foreign worker program.

Could you please table that proposal with the committee?

[Kathleen Sullivan]

Of course. I would be happy to forward that to you.

I will just identify that the proposal really builds on the existing temporary foreign worker program. It has three main elements.

The first is to increase the cap or the limit on the number of foreign workers that Canadian businesses can use.

The second is to extend the length of the validity of labour market impact assessments, or LMIAs. They currently last for only one year, and even if you're bringing the same worker in the next year, you have to go through all of the paperwork again, so we're asking that these be given a longer duration, of two years or more.

Finally, we're asking that ESDC reduce the amount of paperwork that is necessary or the administrative steps that companies have to go through when they apply to bring temporary foreign workers into the country.

It is an easing on the administrative side, and I want to be very clear that it does that without lessening in any way the protections and the benefits that we need to be providing to the foreign workers when they are here in the country.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Why did you and these other organizations come together to develop the emergency foreign worker program proposal?

Do these organizations believe the government is doing enough at the moment to mitigate labour shortages in the farming and food processing industries?

[Kathleen Sullivan]

I will point out that CTAQ and Dimitri are here, as a member of my organization and part of our 11-organization coalition.

We came and worked together because this is the single most debilitating issue that's impacting food and beverage manufacturing today. We didn't have a choice. We had to come out with some short-term measures to alleviate the pressure that our companies are facing, but, most importantly, our workers are facing. These people have continued to go to work for two years in congregate settings to make sure that the rest of us have food on our tables.

As you know, we have been working very hard for the past three months. I am pleased to report that this past Monday, we had a meeting with Minister Qualtrough from ESDC. She confirmed to us that she has reviewed our proposal in depth and is looking at it. I will say that we left that meeting feeling that with that specific proposal, we have the attention of the federal government.