Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, everyone.
Chair and members of the committee, thanks very much for the invitation to appear today.
My name's Rob Henderson. I'm here on behalf of BioTalent Canada, the national sectoral workforce development partner for Canada's bioeconomy, meaning Canada's biotechnology sector. We're also an employer delivery partner under the student work placement program, which is, I think, the reason I'm here today.
We're a national not-for-profit organization, and we work with approximately 210,000 employees and 12,000 employers who constitute Canada's biotech sector. We work with more than 5,000 of those employers across biotechnology, health, agricultural, clean biomanufacturing and life sciences, sectors that are talent-intensive, innovation-driven and essential to Canada's economic and public health resilience.
Since 2018, through the student work placement program, BioTalent Canada has placed no less than 17,000 people, which constitutes almost 9% of the entire biotechnology workforce.
I'd like to speak briefly to how divisions 34, 36 and 44 of part 5 of Bill C-15 align with the goals of the student work placement program and why that alignment matters for Canadian students, employers and taxpayers.
First, division 36, which amends the Canada Student Financial Assistance Act, reinforces an important principle: Federal supports should prioritize Canadian learners and Canadian institutions. From a student work placement program perspective, this matters because our program is built to connect students studying in Canada with employers operating in Canada, many of them small and medium-sized enterprises.
Indeed, 80% of Canada's biotechnology sector consists of small and medium-sized enterprises of fewer than 50 staff members. In fact, 50% of those have fewer than 10 staff members. Therefore, these are very small and medium-sized enterprises, which a lot of times is surprising to people and their understanding of Canada's biotechnology sector. They usually think that these are the larger pharmaceutical firms. In terms of employment, that is not the case. The largest employers are small and medium-sized enterprises.
Also, 70% of employers in Canada's biotech sector have no human resources expertise on staff, so you have a lot of scientists doing human resources, which is often like getting a plumber to do your taxes.