Mr. Chair, members of the committee, good afternoon.
My name is Mathieu Lavigne, and I am the director of public and economic affairs with the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, or FCCQ. I'm here today with my colleague, Ms. Audrey Langlois, adviser, workforce and economic affairs.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear today by video conference from Montreal.
The FCCQ, which some of you know well, is an organization that comprises 125 chambers of commerce and 1,200 member businesses, for a total of over 50,000 businesses. Our members operate in all sectors of the economy in every region of Quebec. As the largest network of business people and businesses in Quebec, the FCCQ is also a provincial chamber of commerce and defends the interests of its members with respect to public policy.
We thank you for inviting us to take part in this study on the labour shortage and the productivity of our small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs. It's a topic that is obviously at the heart of our work at the FCCQ.
I'll quickly share a few observations and, above all, some recommendations on the various elements included in the study, but rest assured that we can discuss other topics in response to your questions, if time permits.
First and foremost, I'll begin with the labour shortage. It's clearly the main concern in the economic sector in Quebec. For example, in March, there were 259,170 job vacancies in Quebec, double the number there were at the end of 2019, before the pandemic.
There are many causes for the shortage, hence the importance of deploying a wide range of measures. I'd like to draw your attention to some of those, beginning with attracting foreign skilled workers.
Our members are very concerned about the slow processing of applications of would‑be immigrants. While the processing time for a skilled worker is 32 months in Quebec, the wait time for a similar program in another province in Canada will soon be set at six months. Accelerating the processing of immigration applications and the issuing of work permits should be a top priority for the federal government. I want to take this opportunity to second what the rector of the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue said earlier. We're on the same page.
Obviously, immigration is not the only answer to the labour shortage. There's also a need to better train current and future workers on an ongoing basis, and encourage the unemployed to quickly return to work and experienced workers to remain on the labour market longer if they wish to do so.
That's why we are proposing that the federal government create a voluntary lifelong learning savings plan, based somewhat on the registered education savings plan model. We also suggest that the government undertake a real overall review of the employment insurance system to refocus it on its primary mission, temporary income support with support measures to promote a quick return to work. Finally, we recommend that the government increase the income threshold at which guaranteed income supplement benefits are reduced.
The regulatory and administrative tax burden is another major obstacle to growth for our SMEs. Here again, the federal government can and must act, beginning by bringing former Bill C‑208 into force quickly. The bill promotes the transfer of business ownership within a family. The current tax rules make things difficult for SME owners and hinder the transfer of family businesses to the next generation. The bill must come into effect.
Another source of obstacles for business owners is the duplication of reporting requirements under similar federal and Quebec laws. We've been asking the federal government for several years to undertake discussions with the Quebec government to come to an agreement regarding a single income tax return; we recommend the pragmatic and innovative approach of focusing the process solely on the interests of taxpayers.
We then suggest that the federal government learn from its Quebec counterparts, who have brought forward an omnibus bill on regulatory relief measures for the second year in a row. There's no doubt that, every year, some of the many federal laws and regulations could be eliminated, and others, streamlined, to make life easier for business owners.
In closing, I thank you for taking a serious look at the productivity and labour challenges that our SMEs face.
We would be glad to answer your questions.