Transport Committee on Nov. 2nd, 2022

[Jean-Marc Gionet]

At the risk of repeating myself, it depends on the line of business. We've listed service standards for a number of categories. They range from 60 days to six months to 120 days. It really depends on the business line.

I think they're all available on the website, but we'd be happy to table that—

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Are you achieving those service standards currently?

[Jean-Marc Gionet]

No, and that is.... For example, again, to focus on the work permit, which I think has been key to this conversation and this study, the service standard there is 60 days. As I mentioned, as of September we're at 116 days, but the measures we are taking in terms of staffing up and looking at efficiencies are with a view to returning to that service standard early in 2023.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Is the department working at full capacity at the moment, and/or has it been over the last couple of years?

[Jean-Marc Gionet]

At full capacity....

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

That's in terms of staffing and the ability to process applications.

[Jean-Marc Gionet]

The pandemic certainly impacted the ability for certain offices to operate as they had done prepandemic, but certainly in recent months things are getting back to normal. For example, visa application centres overseas are operational. We took steps to—

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Everyone's back at work. Let me ask the question that Monsieur Barsalou-Duval asked but ran out of time for. How are things not improving?

[Jean-Marc Gionet]

Again, I think there is improvement. We're not, for example, back at the 60-day work permit target, but we are producing record numbers of work permit applications compared with recent statistics. That is being achieved through the measures I've mentioned—staffing, looking at the efficiencies, leveraging the technology and making sure we have online applications and can move files around.

Progress is being achieved, but it's not going to be an overnight fix to get back to 60 days as we—

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

It's not an overnight fix. How do we up the urgency? What can the federal government or the department do to increase and expedite those applications? Again, we heard from every witness so far in this study, over the course of six meetings, that this really needs to be ramped up. What do we do? What can be done to ramp that up quickly?

[Jean-Marc Gionet]

Again, it's the investments that I've mentioned we're making in terms of looking at the processes, streamlining and hiring staff. As the minister announced, the permanent resident levels are going up. That means we can land additional permanent residents year over year. That will help in ensuring that there are employees and workers who are selected by the provinces, for example, to meet those labour market demands.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Let me go to Transport Canada. We've heard over the course of this study that we're short 28,000 to 30,000 truck drivers. We'll be short 58,000 employees in the air sector over the course of the next decade. I think it was 50,000 in the marine sector or the rail sector as well. These are startling numbers.

Is Transport Canada concerned about this labour shortage and the growing gap?

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Give a 15-second response, please.

[Melanie Vanstone]

Yes, we are. That's why we put in place the four-point strategy I mentioned in my opening remarks, and we intend to work very closely with our federal counterparts, provinces and territories—

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Is enough being done? I mean, a website and reviewing recommendations are not really much action.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Muys, and thank you, Ms. Vanstone.

Last today, we have Mr. Badawey for five minutes.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I just want to tell Mr. Bachrach to come on down to Niagara. We're building that kind of facility, and it's going to be an innovation in training facilities.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Is it portable?

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

No, it's not portable, but they would love Niagara. They can come down and enjoy the falls, enjoy the wineries—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

—the beaches and all that, and, of course, they can go right next door to Leslyn's area in Haldimand, which is a beautiful area.

Anyway, now that I've wasted 10 or 15 seconds, I want to expand on my earlier questions to these individuals who we have on the screen.

I'll say this. The preface to my question is the fact that yesterday's drivers and operators are today's transportation specialists. No longer is someone just driving a truck or captaining and piloting a marine vessel and so on and so forth. They look after, through efficiencies and effectiveness, real-time decision-making. Whether it's the product, the cargo they're carrying or the data they're managing en route, they give companies and customers more effectiveness, more fairness and, with that, more efficiencies.

Is it fair to say that yesterday's drivers—and I'm going to repeat the question I put earlier—engineers, captains and pilots, while moving goods, are tomorrow's transportation specialists? They are operators, yes, but equally important are their data and logistics managers, who are trained to offer additional corporate and customer value, as I mentioned earlier.

Do you feel that, with the trade agreements our nation has ratified within the last three to four years...? Yes, our population is 38 million people, and some would think that's small, but frankly, our economic population is over 1.8 billion, which places us within the top two economic populations in the world. Therefore, do we integrate?

Someone mentioned it earlier; I think it was Mr. Gillespie. Do we integrate, within this group of trading partners, distribution logistics and data analysis, leading to integrated transportation management and therefore up-to-date transportation specialists, not just drivers but transportation specialists who are therefore trained in that manner?

I'll throw that question out to all of you.

[Melanie Vanstone]

I'll start off, and I'll invite my colleagues to join.

From the perspective of Transport Canada, we see that there is constant introduction of new technologies and change in the transportation sector, which drive changes in the skill requirements for many different occupations in that sector. I believe, to some extent, that the statement rings true. There's an ongoing evolution of skills and requirements for people to participate in these careers.

Also, I would mention that Transport Canada has made some investments already through budget 2022, with $163.3 million being invested over five years to develop a modern, digital, analytics-driven approach to support supply chain optimization, improve asset and traffic management, foster resiliency and improve coordination across the modes of transportation. We are, I think, recognizing these issues and taking steps in that broader context.

I welcome any others who would like to add to that response.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Are there any other comments?

[Andrew Brown]

I would just say that we recognize that the sectors themselves are well placed to speak to what some of the needs are. That's one of the reasons we're complementing some of the broader programs that we have with the sectoral workforce solutions program. This is something that is going to be funding sectoral projects, and it will really help employers and workers in particular sectors.

We've gone out with a call for proposals. This is currently in the assessment process, so we're going to have to see which proposals will be funded, but we hope we're going to be able to announce in the coming months projects that will be specific for and led by people in particular sectors, such as the transportation sector.

This would be a way to leverage some of the expertise that's within different parts of the transportation sector in terms of informing skills and employment programming.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Brown, and thank you, Mr. Badawey.

That concludes the questioning for today. On behalf of all committee members, I want to thank our witnesses for their time and for sharing their expertise with us.

The meeting is adjourned.