Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
Incorporated in 1993, the CCAA is a non-profit, national partnership that works with industry, organized labour, educators and government. We work exclusively on a national labour market strategy for our industry.
I wish to speak to you today about the need to retain our skilled workforce and about the lack of training capacity to produce graduates for our industry in Canada.
With regard to the demand for skilled maintenance workers in our industry, Canada needed, pre-pandemic, an additional 55,000 workers by 2025. Only 25% of that number would be graduates from Canadian PSE institutions.
The critical aviation labour shortage was worldwide and was well documented by ICAO, Boeing, Airbus, IATA and many other studies.
The pandemic has provided a temporary reprieve for some sectors of the industry, largely air operators, but many companies have already started to rehire workers and are having shortages. CCAA consultations with industry through our national labour market strategy events, focus groups, etc., confirm that the pre-pandemic shortage of workers will return relatively soon.
The pandemic has resulted in the loss of approximately 35% of the prior workforce due to those being laid off, choosing to retire or seeking employment in other sectors. As the recovery takes hold, there will be a surge in demand, which cannot be met simply by trying to rehire those laid off.
Airlines have grounded planes and delayed maintenance for up to a year. This has created a significant, pent-up demand. Aircraft being returned to service also require extensive maintenance—up to 16 days for a crew of five people per aircraft. As the recovery takes hold, there will be a massive surge in demand for maintenance work. If Canadian maintenance, repair and overhaul companies like KF can't handle the demand, it'll be forced to go offshore.
There is a lack of training capacity. Canadian colleges do not have the capacity to meet anywhere near the demand from industry. Every aviation program at colleges in Canada had a wait-list prior to the pandemic, except for ÉNA in Montreal. Despite that, they were only producing 25% of the needed graduates. The number of graduates from aviation programs in 2021-22 will be reduced by 40%. Aviation programs at colleges are expensive. Most colleges agree that it's not realistic to expect governments to expand capacity at bricks and mortar institutions.
There is a lack of local training facilities. In Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan, there is only one college in each province with AME programs. In the four Atlantic provinces, there are only two, one of which has currently suspended its program. There are no aviation programs north of 60—in the territories or the Yukon. Those from outside major cities, obviously, have to relocate for two to three years to a major city to get their training. It's costly and expensive.
There are Transport Canada restrictions. Prior to the pandemic, Transport Canada did not allow colleges to use blended learning or online learning. Only hours in the classroom counted. Colleges were caught unprepared by the need to transition. It's taken them a while. Transport Canada has temporarily extended the use of online to the end of this year, but it hasn't indicated to colleges whether that will be continued, so colleges don't know how to invest for that long-term strategy. Most don't have the expertise or the budgets to convert to online.
TC-approved colleges are required to follow woefully outdated curricula that haven't been updated for 20 years. Colleges are still obliged to teach how to fix cloth wings and to maintain parts that are no longer used on airplanes. It's noteworthy that TC requires hours-based study. It doesn't matter how long it takes you to do it; you have to do the hours. It's not competency-based, which is the transition that virtually everyone is looking to do. It's also noteworthy that only about 50% of graduates from college programs meet the Transport Canada requirements...and get no credit for their education.
In conclusion, industry needs increased training capacity through new, more accessible, efficient, effective and targeted ways of training. It's a global competition out there for talent and for the work. If we don't have the workforce, the work goes offshore and doesn't come back.
Thank you for your attention.