Industry Committee on Nov. 20th, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

You have one minute left.

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Maybe I can try to hone this down a little bit.

I've heard from several larger employers anecdotally, not just witnesses, who explained to me that the amount of money they're paying in terms of EI is substantial. Of course, they would like to see that reduced, but they're also concerned in a much more profound way about the number of people they would like to hire. There is a risk, obviously, that if you train someone they will move on after four years to another industry or get a better job somewhere else.

Have you given any thought to sharing that burden? In other words, if a company hires or takes on five or six apprentices, the amount of money they would have would be remitted for the time they were training those individuals. Clearly, one of the things that has been identified is a labour shortage, particularly a flexible labour shortage. I'm wondering if that's something you've been able to consider in your travels.

That's open to all of you.

Thank you, Chair.

[Charles Cirtwill]

I can't respond in terms of concrete studies in that area, but I can tell you that over the last two and half to three years we've had an opportunity to talk to lots of employers along these lines, talking about the labour shortage and EI. I can't think of a single individual I've spoken to who wouldn't be open to that sort of exercise. They're eager to put up their money as long as there's some potential payback at the other end. I think IMP would have expended quite considerable resources on that program.

[Robert Durdan]

Right now at Maritime Steel, when we bring a welder aboard we'll bring in an individual who usually has a base set of skills and who can do what we term a 2G weld—a flatter weld and a horizontal weld. Over time, we train them in-house to become a 4G welder who can do overhead and other things like stainless steel if necessary. That just automatically happens. So there is a great deal of in-house training going on at the industrial level right now, which people may not be aware of. So we typically hire a welder at the marginal level, if you will, and by the time three or four years have gone by we've got a pretty competent person who is transferable.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you very much.

I just have a couple of comments to make as chair to wrap this up.

I'm the only member of the committee from Alberta, and my riding has the famous Leduc 1 well, so I'm quite familiar with the oil and gas industry. I want to commend you for your comments on partnering, certainly. And it's very heartening to hear Mr. Crête talk about how the economic growth of Alberta is benefiting the entire country. I'm going to quote his remarks time and time again.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I have no problem with that.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Because the labour shortage you describe is something that is only going to get worse. In 2007-2008 the oil sands will go into another major expansion; at the same time, there is a major public expansion to deal with the increase in people. There are 86,000 people predicted to move into the city of Edmonton over the next five years—and that's just Edmonton. The rest of the province is experiencing that type of growth as well.

So I compliment you, especially the CME, for setting up a program where you're actually linking manufacturers across the country. It's an excellent initiative. Secondly, I want to compliment you for your letter, which Mr. Lapierre raised as well. I think it's an outstanding letter, and the fact there are so many associations and industry groups willing to put their name to it is a very good sign.

You don't have to answer this now, Ms. Janega, but has any sort of costing been done of the recommendations on the SR&ED tax credit, the third recommendation, to make the credit refundable and exclude it from the calculation of the tax base, or is there any more specific information you can give us on that? We did have the finance department present on that and on CCA investments, but if there's any costing the CME has done on that, it would be very helpful for us.

[Ann Janega]

I'll check into that and certainly let you know.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

I'll just wrap this up.

Thank you very much for coming out today and being with us. I encourage you to exchange cards and get to know the members. Thank you again. It's been a very productive session here this morning. We appreciate your time.

The meeting is adjourned.