Finance committee  Thank you. On behalf of the 3.3 million members of the Canadian Labour Congress, we want to thank you for the opportunity to present our views today. The CLC brings together workers from virtually all sectors of the Canadian economy, in all occupations and in all parts of Canad

Finance committee  I just want to say that employers always have the option to train their own employees as they would see fit. This is not the first time employers have that opportunity. This would be the first time that they maybe—

Finance committee  —have access to this type of fund.

Finance committee  But you would agree that it is the employers' responsibility to train their workers to meet the needs they're looking for.

Finance committee  No.

Finance committee  No. It's a terrible strategy.

Finance committee  The way the Canada job grant is structured—

Finance committee  Our answer is that we need a strategy to invest in infrastructure. We need a manufacturing strategy. We need a green infrastructure strategy. We also need a child care strategy.

Finance committee  What we're talking about are numbers that have already been collected by Statistics Canada, but they're not routinely published. They collect the number of people who are working part time but want more work. They are called involuntary part-time workers or underemployed part-tim

Finance committee  That's not true.

Finance committee  Sure. I guess the issue is that union dues are tax deductible. I am a proud member of Unifor and I pay dues to Unifor. Part of that is in the eventuality of a strike. If that should ever happen, we pay wages. There's a strike fund. That may be what he is referring to as profit; I

Finance committee  Thank you.

Finance committee  Absolutely. I would say Nova Scotia is a completely different situation from Alberta.

Finance committee  I would suggest that in Nova Scotia, there's actually a wage advantage because the cost of living in Nova Scotia is lower, so you can pay lower wages in Nova Scotia. A business that's exporting something from Nova Scotia has an advantage over a business that's exporting from Albe

Finance committee  Sure. It makes sense if we consider pensions to be deferred wages. If you're putting that money away ahead of time to make sure you have a larger pension, then that money won't be paid out to you in the guaranteed income supplement. You'll have more money when you retire.