Finance committee  We find that the strategic innovation fund is a very important program that supports the research and development phases of all sorts of new technologies that then become commercialized in Canada. You can think about the auto industry, the aerospace industry as well as others.

Finance committee  Angelo, I don't have a clear answer to that one. Do you?

Finance committee  Although not explicitly tied to Bill C-69, we want to express concern over the absence of new capital funding toward the strategic innovation fund in budget 2024. That's a cornerstone investment vehicle that has served the industrial economy well for many years. Recapitalizing this fund should be considered for 2025.

Transport committee  We've been advocating to end the worst effects of contract flipping at airports for a really long time. We made three recommendations. Two of the three recommendations have been implemented. They are slightly watered down, but they were implemented. It's the third one that still needs to change.

Transport committee  I can't, but I can tell you that we're very hopeful that something like the change we're asking for could be made soon. All of the MPs may have seen our campaign on this topic. We'll probably be meeting with you—hopefully, in short order—to discuss this topic. It's incredibly important to our members in the aviation sector and to those in other sectors as well who are impacted by contract flipping that the change is made so that we can protect the quality of people's work, particularly in a labour shortage environment where we need to be increasing the quality of work, not decreasing it.

Transport committee  I have three things. One is that, when it comes to training, we need to make sure we're not just relying on experienced workers. An experienced worker doesn't become experienced without training and experience. We need to make sure we're moving with the whole pipeline. That includes making sure there are enough seats in schools so that people can get the training that they need.

Transport committee  That's a great question. We are working collaboratively wherever we can. Ms. Dias would have very specific examples of exactly where we're working collaboratively with employers to fill positions. A few that come to mind, for me, would be some of the baggage handlers and other groups we've worked with to make sure we're raising wages for workers.

Transport committee  The information I have from our members is that there were 800 applications for a pilot job posting and 148 people were hired. I don't know where they were hired from. I don't know what their previous experience was.

Transport committee  We definitely want to see the people who do the job, those who use the technology or are having some of the tasks replaced by technology...they need to be consulted. What often happens is that technology is introduced and no one asks the people who have potentially 30 years of experience in doing the job what it's like to do the job and the challenges that come up and all sorts of things.

Transport committee  We definitely have a specific regulatory change. The change is to implement full successor rights by changing the Canada Labour Code so that when a contract is flipped, the collective agreement goes with the new contract. That would mean any increases in pay, better benefits, scheduling issues, time off, vacation time, all of those different pieces that are in the collective agreement would move with the workers when they move to the new company.

Transport committee  I absolutely can. We've seen in a number of different locations in the U.S. that minimum standards for wages at airports can be increased quite dramatically, and that what happens is that the quality of work is better, airports become more efficient, there's less turnover and the customer service is of higher quality.

Transport committee  I'll answer for Ms. Dias, who had some technical difficulties today, so she couldn't join the meeting. In terms of attracting experienced workers, we're talking about higher-quality work here. If someone left and went to a different job, they did so because the job was more attractive.

Transport committee  It's a great question. It really depends on what job people are taking on and the training requirements. Of course, training to be a pilot and training to be a customer service representative both require extensive training. Obviously, the training is incredibly different. For some of our employers where we have the most new staff or where levels of staff have come back to levels that were available before the pandemic, we see that 60% of the staff are new.

Transport committee  That would be something that would be taken on by employers, not necessarily by the unions. We'd be happy to work with our employers to develop attraction and retention—

Transport committee  Yes, we would be happy to work together in that collaboration to develop an attraction and retention program with our employers.