Thank you very much.
Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to make a submission before this committee. Thank you for travelling to Winnipeg to hear us.
Manitoba Building Trades represents 13 skilled trade and construction unions. Our membership includes roughly just over 7,000 skilled trade and construction professionals in Manitoba. Of course, we're part of a national network that includes over half a million Canadians who build essential infrastructure from coast to coast to coast.
Manitoba Building Trades, I'd like to make it very clear, is not at all opposed to trade agreements that open new markets for Canada and indeed expose Canadian enterprise to fair competition. Trade agreements that include reasonable reciprocity and fair trading provisions for all parties can serve to strengthen our economy. Our submission today focuses specifically on labour mobility and temporary work entitlements as contained in chapter 12 of the TPP. The rest of my comments will be associated with these provisions.
Chapter 12 provides for entry of persons engaged in any occupations that fall within national occupation classification codes 0, A, and B. Virtually all of the hard-working Canadians we represent fall under groups 72 and 73 of category B of the NOC codes. In the past, Canada has utilized the temporary foreign worker program to supplement the Canadian workforce on an as-required basis and upon determination that there is indeed a shortage of a particular category of workers that cannot be satisfied domestically so that Canadian workers will not be displaced. Under NAFTA, for example, mobility provisions provided for entry of a very select category of professional designations or specialized skills.
The TPP is very different indeed. It imposes no such requirements. It opens the Canadian labour market to a larger group of trading partners. To our knowledge, the entry rights are very liberal. We have not noted any restrictions related to adverse employment impacts in Canada with the limited exception of using foreign workers where there's an ongoing labour dispute. In effect, we read chapter 12 as an open door to the Canadian labour market, with Canada only having the ability to ultimately delay entry or delay the issuance of permits. Beyond that, any applicant has final recourse before the dispute resolution mechanisms provided for under chapter 28.
That process of international trade arbitration and those tribunals are very much like labour arbitration. They operate much differently. Being quasi-judicial in nature, they do not uphold or live by or work under the same kind of stringent rules that would apply in the courts, for example. That places Canada at a significant risk of adverse decisions when it has elected to deny applications.
There are a few other comments we'd like to make respecting just the labour market impacts and the impacts on the Canadian economy in general. Our review of chapter 12 as well as other TPP provisions suggests that Canada's construction and skilled trades workforce will face adverse impacts, with the magnitude of these impacts growing over time. We'll explain how.
We also submit that eased entry is contrary to Canada's economic interests in terms of both employment and the ability to leverage infrastructure projects, on which Canada is about to launch a very significant program. As far as industry impacts and the unionized industry are concerned, there are really two components to the construction industry, the unionized and the non-unionized. The unionized industry carries the bulk of the workforce training initiatives that go on in Canada. Next to the community college system in Canada, we are the largest investors in training and education and development of the skilled workforce that is required today and that will be required in the future.
How does easing entry affect that? Well, it starts to remove those work opportunities that are essential. For skilled workers the workplace is the classroom. Our members do not, and the people we represent do not, go study for three years and then enter the workforce. The component is 80% on the tools, hands-on experience, learning in the work environment, and only about 20% in the classroom. It is essential that we have a roster of effective training opportunities for young Canadians to enter the professions. That is not only essential for today but for meeting future demands.
As I referenced, Canada has just announced a very significant infrastructure program to get Canada working again. We will need skilled workers today—