Finance committee  Absolutely. A construction worker won't qualify to immigrate to Canada right now under the current requirements for immigration, so that needs to change. Recognizing that we have shortages in some areas and pockets of high unemployment in others, we need to look at all kinds of different ways to get more people into the construction industry.

Finance committee  There have been the interprovincial ministry objectives, and work has been done on removing those kinds of interprovincial trade barriers to the recognition of different qualifications among tradespeople across provincial barriers. There's a Red Seal working group, which has all those ministerial folks on board.

Finance committee  I'd be happy to take a more comprehensive view of that, and we'll certainly send that along to the committee.

Finance committee  Absolutely, Building Trades supports the normalization of people working on our construction sites who aren't Canadian citizens. I think we need to provide a pathway to Canadian citizenship. There's a pilot project that many of our affiliates have been working on through the department of immigration and citizenship, and that's had some really good results.

Finance committee  Absolutely, we are appreciative of the long-standing support of the NDP on this issue. For us, the inequity is quite simply.... The example that I provided in my opening remarks is quite illustrative. I live next door to someone—let's say hypothetically—who is a salesperson selling conduit, the kind of PVC material you run wires through.

Finance committee  It is for employees. In some cases, employers do cover those costs. That's largely on large, multi-billion-dollar, resource-based projects. Oftentimes, the nature of the construction business is that it's a low-margin, high-volume business, and it's very difficult for contractors in a competitive environment to absorb those additional costs and win a project.

Finance committee  Absolutely, 100%. It's important in rural areas, and it's important in urban areas. I can cite many examples within provinces, from rural to urban, and across provinces, where the lack of this tax deduction proves to be a real barrier for worker mobility. Workers often will make the decision to stay at home and not go to work.

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. It's a real pleasure to be here. Thanks to you and the committee for allowing us to present today. My name is Sean Strickland. I'm the executive director of Canada's Building Trades Unions, part of North America's Building Trades Unions. We represent 14 international construction unions with a combined membership of over three million unionized construction workers, of whom 600,000 are in Canada.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to be here this afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to provide some remarks on the build back better legislation and the potential impact it could have on Canada's electric vehicle industry, and how construction and building trades workers fit into that mix.

Finance committee  Thank you very much, MP Koutrakis. It's nice to see you again. If I could just maybe pick up on Robert's comments from earlier, when you think of the national child care program, you don't naturally make a connection to construction. Certainly it will help with our efforts to get more women into the workforce.

Finance committee  Just quickly, we're calling on the government to form a task force on the future of energy sector jobs. We're going to do whatever we can to protect the existing jobs in the energy sector. There's a recent TD report that said we could lose up to 300,000 jobs between now and 2030 in the energy sector.

Finance committee  Go ahead, Robert.

Finance committee  To add to Robert's comments, we're pleased to see the significant amount of dollars going towards training initiatives and apprenticeship for multiple sectors, not just construction, contained in budget 2021. For construction, we need to attract more young people into the industry.

Finance committee  Regarding the skilled trades workforce mobility tax reduction, right now construction workers aren't eligible under the Income Tax Act to deduct expenses for work-related travel, whereas salespeople are, professionals are. You can have a sales professional go to a construction project and deduct their travel expenses, but the person who's installing the product that the salesperson is selling is not able to deduct the same expenses if they have to travel the same amount of distance.

Finance committee  Thank you, Robert. It's a real pleasure to be here today. Thanks very much, members, for the work you do on behalf of your constituents and all Canadians. We appreciate the opportunity to engage on Bill C-30 and look forward to continued consultation on budget items such as the new apprenticeship service, the community workforce development program and the sectoral workforce solutions program as details get ironed out.