Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Honourable members, thank you for the opportunity to share our perspective regarding the committee's important study of Canada's energy exports.
My name is Sean Strickland. I'm the executive director of Canada's Building Trades Unions, CBTU. I'm here to speak on behalf of our 600,000 unionized skilled tradespeople from coast to coast who work in more than 60 different trades and occupations.
In 2024, Canada exported energy worth $208 billion—close to one-third of the nation's total goods exports—and 89% of those energy exports went to the United States. The Government of Canada has made it part of its core mission to diversify our markets, including our energy markets. It is a priority that we at Canada's Building Trades Unions share wholeheartedly.
The members of this committee understand very well that to achieve this goal we urgently require new major energy infrastructure projects: pipelines, LNG facilities, ports and mines, to name a few. Such projects take time to build, and up until recently in Canada, too much time was wasted to assess those initiatives before construction could begin. The TMX expansion is a case in point. It took four years to build but 10 years to approve.
This is why CBTU supported Bill C‑5, which introduced the Major Projects Office and a new impact assessment regime for projects of national interest. Now that these tools are in place, Canada must get moving for real. We need governments and stakeholders to proceed rigorously, because, yes, we have to protect the environment and consider the concerns of affected communities, including building partnerships with indigenous nations, but also expeditiously, so that final investment decisions are made and shovels are in the ground as soon as possible.
These projects are needed for our nation's prosperity, as they provide generational opportunities for thousands of skilled workers and apprentices. As an example, at peak for LNG Canada phase 1, there were more than 9,400 highly skilled Canadians working in Kitimat.
However, projects will deliver maximum benefits for Canada and its workers only if certain conditions are met. Indeed, CBTU is convinced that any time the Government of Canada makes an investment to help attract private capital, that investment should be conditional on good wages and benefits—prevailing wages—as well as apprenticeship requirements and local and indigenous hiring obligations.
That is precisely the model that Bill C‑59 put into place with its clean economy investment tax credits, ITCs. To benefit from the full ITCs, proponents must ensure that tradespersons are remunerated for their labour in accordance with the prevailing wages set out in operative multi-employer collective bargaining agreements. This prevents contractors from hiring workers for wages and benefits that are below the industry standard for a given trade and region.
We must also ensure, as per Bill C‑59, that at least 10% of the labour hours for Red Seal trades or the equivalent are performed by registered apprentices. We know from experience that this requirement has accelerated the completion rate of apprentices in achieving their Red Seal or equivalent status.
During last year's election campaign, the Prime Minister committed to reinstating and improving the programs that encourage employers to hire apprentices and to financially support those apprentices while they complete their training. We call on the government to deliver on these commitments.
We also recommend that a labour supply advisory committee be put in place so that projects' labour supply plans are properly coordinated and we can optimize jobs for Canadians and reduce reliance on temporary foreign workers.
Canada's economy is at a crossroads. A significant part of our prosperity will depend on how we leverage our extraordinary wealth and energy resources. We need to produce more energy, to export more and to export to more regions of the world. For this to happen, government approvals, investment decisions and construction must happen as quickly as possible.
Honourable members, CBTU's 600,000 members are willing and ready to build Canada's future.
I look forward to your questions.