Madam Speaker, people driving along Casavant Boulevard in Saint-Hyacinthe will see school buses parked near the Viandes Lacroix plant. This might seem odd, but it is not. On the contrary, it is a symbol of Quebec's labour shortage. The Saint-Hyacinthe family business was forced to buy three buses to transport employees living in neighbouring towns and the greater Montreal area to the plant every day. Like Viandes Lacroix, 70% of Quebec employers are having a hard time finding workers. This is a real problem for our businesses, which are forced to refuse contracts, increase overtime, miss deadlines and more.
This issue is not unique to Viandes Lacroix. Olymel also runs a free shuttle bus to take workers from Saint-Hyacinthe to Saint-Damase. In Quebec, there are more than half a million jobs to be filled by next year. Over the next 10 years, there will more than 1.3 million jobs to be filled. It is urgent that we take action and implement a national labour strategy. The Liberal government's failure to take action on some key points is a factor in the ongoing labour shortage.
I visited businesses in Acton Vale and Saint-Hyacinthe and met with owners. All of them told me that they are struggling with the labour shortage. They also told me that all of the red tape with the temporary foreign worker program makes it hard for them to hire staff. Immigrant workers are necessary to make up for the labour shortage.
This problem is not unique to these businesses. Businesses across my riding of Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot struggle with this same problem, and this is clear to me every time I travel around my riding and see signs that say "We're hiring" in English, French, Arabic and Spanish. I saw one just yesterday at VIF Plastics.
The economic and business communities of Saint-Hyacinthe and Acton Vale are being bold and innovative in addition to working on recruiting staff.
I want to recognize all members of my riding's economic community and their teams who are doing an extraordinary job. This includes the Acton Vale CFDC; the Acton RCM Développement économique et local; the Acton region chamber of commerce; the chamber of commerce of the greater Saint-Hyacinthe region; the Relève en affaires committee; the Femmes d'affaires maskoutaines committee; the Comité Resource humaine, which brings together managers from manufacturing, service, retail and government businesses; and the Saint-Hyacinthe Technopole.
I also want to point out that Emploi Québec in Montérégie and Développement économique in the Maskoutains RCM have been doing excellent work and have hosted a job day for the past four years. The fourth event, held on March 22, was a huge success. These events are tangible proof that our ridings need workers.
Michaël Morin runs a sharpening shop in my riding, and he told me how hard it is to recruit skilled, motivated people to help his business thrive. Mr. Morin would like to recruit a skilled young man with temporary foreign worker status. Unfortunately, the current criteria are getting in the way. Mr. Morin wants to recruit people to grow his business, but he is being denied permission to hire foreign workers because his business has fewer than 10 employees.
Small businesses like Mr. Morin's are crucial to maintaining the integrity and vitality of our communities. They are the ones suffering because of this situation, and their attempts to find solutions should not be stymied by red tape.
I wrote to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and asked him to adapt temporary foreign worker hiring rules to the reality facing Quebec, and especially rural regions such as Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, which are being hit hard by the labour shortage. On October 15, I also asked the minister to set up a service office for employers in Saint-Hyacinthe to make the process easier for them and our constituents. When I talked to employers in my riding, they also pointed to the importance of adapting various kinds of skills training to meet their actual needs.
I also believe it is essential to focus on training and knowledge transfer. That is why I propose developing a system as part of a training program that would pair a newly hired young person with an employee who is close to retirement.
Businesses have talked to me about the problem of knowledge transfer. A retiring employee often leaves with the wealth of 30 years experience, but the businesses do not have the budget to keep the retiring employee on as the new, often young employee is getting started. We have to develop either a tax credit or a program, some sort of support for businesses to help them keep both these employees at the same time for a month or two to allow for a real transfer of knowledge.
In addition to allowing practical and technical knowledge of the job to be transferred, the goal is to transfer love for the job, establish human connections, and develop social skills that create an ideal work dynamic for everyone. Young people would then benefit from the mentorship and experience and expertise they need to carry on the work.
I think we should support associations such as Espace carrière, Action Emploi and Parcours Formation that not only connect workers and businesses, but also provide counselling to immigrant employees who need it. I want to commend these employee integration and economic development businesses. Parcours Formation and Action Emploi do remarkable work in our riding.
It is difficult to integrate an individual into a work environment without considering the social and personal reality that affects their work. I had the opportunity to accompany the Minister of Labour to the meeting of G7 labour ministers in Turin, Italy. We met with a state organization that is mandated to do exactly that. In addition to helping young people integrate into the job market, this organization helps employers.
Employers look after the professional and technical job integration of staff. However, young workers may come to work and find it difficult to do their job because their family lives in extreme poverty, one of their friends died of an overdose the night before, their mother lives with domestic violence, or because they are financially supporting their family at a young age. Employers often need the support of such an organization because they do not have the resources needed to help this young person deal with social issues.
The Italian organization I mentioned meets with youth at their place of employment and offers help. It also works with the family at home and with existing community and government resources because the young person's social and personal issues can hinder their integration at work.
I believe that we need to develop programs to help these people truly integrate and keep their jobs. I was the director of a community organization that helped youth at risk and our job was not to ensure that they went to work the first day. Our job was to help them stay motivated and keep going to work every morning, despite their problems, and to continue integrating into the workplace.
The labour shortage is a real economic drag on our business development. Since my riding is experiencing a labour shortage, I will be holding a round table on the economy with my riding's economic development organizations, chambers of commerce and community organizations.
We need to work together to identify solutions and develop a common action plan that will maintain co-operation between stakeholders and pinpoint specific solutions for our riding that we can propose to the government. Many economic stakeholders and municipalities in my riding support this undertaking. I therefore invite as many businesses, community and economic development organizations and chambers of commerce in the riding as possible to attend this round table.
The labour shortage is a complex problem and we all need to be part of the solution. By joining forces and combining our different skills, we can improve the situation. Solutions do exist.