Human Resources committee  I'll just say that the main two points for us would be to tie the employer as much as possible to this, and at a minimum, don't let this be a barrier to mobility. If we can find ways to facilitate mobility, we should do it. PCA is ready to play an intermediary role between the pr

Human Resources committee  I'll add that I think the standards are important. The Canadian Home Builders' Association mentioned looking beyond simply Red Seal to non-Red Seal trades as being another issue. I think the steps the government is taking right now on apprenticeship harmonization is an important

Human Resources committee  I would say that we need a strong and rigorous commitment to flexibility. What I mean by that is that the flexibility should be at the user level, not at the provincial government level. The provincial government should have a fairly strong requirement to ensure flexibility and

Human Resources committee  Yes.

Human Resources committee  What we're proposing is directed at the worker. It's accessed by the worker. The worker would reach forward into his EI benefits, take a lump sum, and use that to either move for that first venture out west, for example, or to get the training they require, whatever it might be.

Human Resources committee  Can I just piggyback on what Mr. Mayes also referenced? I agree, maybe not the resumé building but the essential skills around literacy and numeracy is still a core issue, especially when we're talking about completion rates. I realize I'm getting a little bit off topic here. T

Human Resources committee  It's maybe both. I'm sure many of your neighbours are probably working for our member companies doing that back and forth, and that's really what we're sort of zeroing in on because we do use that tool quite a bit. Often, for example, the first plane ticket out, that first ventu

Human Resources committee  I think you're referring to the competition within the training system.

Human Resources committee  We believe competition is good in every industry. It drives innovation. It creates responsiveness in terms of market needs. A level playing field between private, public, and union training centres, we believe, will ensure that the training system is as responsive as possible to

Human Resources committee  Respectfully, I'm not sure that my impression of the backlash was related to the employer engagement aspect of the job grant. Quite the contrary, I participated in a number of those consultations and there is pretty strong support, I understand—certainly that was my impression—fr

Human Resources committee  I think there were some rollout issues. Here's our perspective. If you don't have employers engaged in these programs, then you're training without a reliable prediction of an outcome. That's simply not going to suffice if you want to actually address the specific, and frequently

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, everyone. It's my pleasure to be here on behalf of the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada to share our perspective on Canada's labour market development agreements. PCA represents and supports progressive, unionized employers in C

Finance committee  No. It would be essentially reaching forward into your EI contributions and basically taking a lump sum instead of the regular contribution you get every two weeks, or whatever it is.

Finance committee  They're currently collecting EI, yes.

Finance committee  Let me try to answer that as well as I can. I'm not sure we see a ton of issues with block release, per se. I think the biggest restrictions or challenges we face are actually regulatory at the provincial level. Frankly, to western Canada's benefit, Ontario is shutting out appren