Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.
We've already submitted our brief, and it deals with temporary foreign workers. We're going to talk about the construction industry.
First I'll give you a bit of background. We're part of the IBEW, which is the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which was founded in 1891. It's an organization of workers all across North America, the Panama Canal Zone, and Puerto Rico.
It's made up of highly skilled tradespeople in industries such as construction, power utilities, telecommunications, and manufacturing. There are approximately 58,000 members in Canada, of whom 25,000 are electrical construction workers.
Our presentation will focus solely, of course, on the construction industry, and that's one of the major contributors to the economy in Canada. As the Construction Sector Council reports, it's a $130 billion industry.
There are certainly a lot of differences in the construction industry that set it apart from any other industries in Canada, and I just want to touch on some of the highlights of some of these.
Construction work is pretty well temporary by nature. There are boom and bust cycles in the construction industry itself, and that varies from region to region, province to province, and even within areas within provinces.
Workers in construction don't get up in the morning and report particularly to any workplace. They could be reporting to a workplace today, be laid off tomorrow, and then be going to another workplace. That's the nature of the business. People are pretty mobile, and even the contractors themselves are pretty mobile when it comes to looking for work in that area.
So they go wherever work is, and they look for the best way to earn money to provide that living for their families and to pay their bills.
Because there are such unique differences in the construction industry, it's important that some of the public policy decisions reflect on the reality of that industry as it relates to temporary foreign workers. The issue of temporary foreign workers has not gained any prominence in Atlantic Canada. It seems it's gained more prominence particularly in Alberta and British Columbia because there's a regional construction boom in these areas.
As an international union, we recognize the contribution that immigrants make to Canada and have made to the building of this union throughout its history as a building construction trades union. We're not opposed to immigration. Significant numbers of past immigrants make up the membership of this union, and I'm one of these people. My ancestors came from England and Ireland, so our whole organization is basically built on immigration.
As an organization we support public policy that is pro-Canadian, pro-immigration, and pro-foreign-trained workers. We support the importation of foreign temporary workers if there are proven and justified shortages during boom and peak construction periods and if Canadians are not available to complete the work or there is a shortage of qualified Canadian workers. But we do have some concerns with respect to foreign workers filling some of these construction jobs. Employment opportunities for Canadians--as an example, Newfoundland and Labrador construction workers or other provincial construction workers who entered the industry as apprentices--can be compromised by inappropriate use of temporary foreign workers. That has a negative impact on our youth, our aboriginals, and our resident immigrants.
The IBEW recognizes that temporary foreign workers are a part of the Canadian economy. However, we need to assess these workers to confirm their legitimacy, to ensure they are properly orientated into their workplaces, to assist in their training, and to ensure that labour standards are complied with and that these workers are not exploited, abused, and used as a source of cheap labour.
Temporary foreign workers should have to meet the same selection and criteria-testing standards as Canadian workers in occupational health and safety--red seal certifications in the trades--and should have a valid driver's licence.
We will offer an alternative option with respect to the importation of temporary workers from outside Canada. One of these options is that Canadian unions operate a hiring hall system. Because most of the Canadian building trade unions are part of the international unions that are headquartered in the United States, these union halls can be accessed for a supply of workers. If there are no qualified construction workers available from Canadian local union hiring halls that are international in scope, like the IBEW, we have access to hiring halls in the United States.
Most building unions in Canada are affiliates of international unions. There's a protocol that allows American workers to come in and fill these shortages during peak construction periods. This process is probably a little better than bringing foreign temporary workers from outside North America. The simple reason for this is that these American workers have training and safety standards similar to that of Canadian electrical construction workers.
We have a problem with obtaining the working visas or permits for these people. That process is very slow and cumbersome from our perspective. I would suggest that other international unions besides the IBEW are experiencing the same problems with obtaining working visas to get people in to fill shortages on these job sites.
In the IBEW, there's a pool of 330,000 electrical construction workers in Canada and the United States. These people can be accessed through the hiring hall we're talking about. In the United States right now there is high unemployment in some of these halls, with 50% to 70% of members available to go to work on very short notice.
Access to these American workers is impeded by the wait times for visas. It costs $3,800 to obtain a visa to bring an American worker into Canada through a Canadian hiring hall affiliate. It takes six weeks or longer. To accommodate these American workers coming in through hiring halls, the system needs to be reviewed. It needs to be streamlined so that visas can be issued more expeditiously. Local unions should be able to access working visas for these individuals within a few weeks or even days.
I want to give you an example of a shortage situation that exists right now in Canada. British Columbia Hydro is in desperate need of 50 qualified power line technicians. We used to call them linemen at one time--power linemen. They are available from affiliated IBEW local unions in the United States, right on the border of British Columbia. However, there's an issue with securing working visas to bring these people across the border to go to work for BC Hydro. They're being told that it's taking six weeks or longer to get working visas for these people. In the face of that kind of an impediment, power line technicians who are ready to go to work tomorrow morning with their tools aren't going to wait six or eight weeks. They are going to be on another job down in Arizona or California, where the work is booming. These are some of the issues we have with respect to getting workers.
Right now there's a bit of a downturn in the economy in the United States, and more and more skilled construction workers are becoming available through the hiring halls of the international unions, particularly in the IBEW. The American economy is on a downslide in the construction industry, and a lot of Canadian affiliates could access that supply of workers if we had a system that would allow us to obtain working visas fairly fast.
We suggest that a labour force work plan should be developed. It should be done in consultation with Canadian stakeholders. We need a master work plan with a long-term national job strategy to address the country's labour force needs for all industries, including the construction industry.