moved for leave to introduce Bill C-257, An Act to provide for the establishment of national standards for labour market training, apprenticeship and certification.
Mr. Speaker, I again thank my colleague from Thunder Bay—Rainy River for seconding this bill.
As a journeyman carpenter by trade, I feel very strongly that the skill shortages in the building trades in our country are not being addressed. The bill seeks to address the failure of the human resources strategy of the government. The bill points out that hiring temporary foreign workers is not a human resources strategy at all. In fact, it is the polar opposite of a human resources strategy.
The bill would standardize and harmonize the curriculum, the entrance requirements and the craft jurisdiction of all skilled craft trades and would create national training advisory committees in each of the skilled trades so that those curriculums could be created and standardized to meet the needs of industry and to further ease the mobility of skilled workers so they could go across the country and have their credentials recognized in the jurisdictions in which they worked.
This is a much needed reform and I hope it attracts and retains the support of all members of the House of Commons.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)