Human Resources committee  One problem we see all the time, which was also mentioned in the earlier session, is that there doesn't seem to be the streaming that used to go on. Way back when I went to high school, there was a place where people could be nurtured and introduced to the trades through shop and

Human Resources committee  Maybe I could start quickly. One thing that we ran into, even 7 or 8 years ago, when trying to get into the junior highs, was an initial resistance to our industry’s coming in on career day to talk to kids. The attitude was: “What are you doing coming in here? All our kids are go

Human Resources committee  It helps. Whether it's a panacea or can, on its own, address the kinds of shortages we're looking at, I don't believe so. In many cases those individuals who are looking for that retraining or re-employment are middle aged. In those circumstances, because of some of the job requi

Human Resources committee  May I respond to that?

Human Resources committee  We have shortages. We would love to be able to fill all of our needs domestically, but we can't right now and it's simple math. When we have a fertility rate of 1.58, we are losing our labour pool quickly. The other important thing to stress here is that this is not cyclical fo

Human Resources committee  Yes?

Human Resources committee  Okay.

Human Resources committee  First of all, there is immigration reform, and I think there have been some positive steps in that area right away. There is no question that, despite our best efforts at home, we will still need to look for foreign-trained workers—if not to do anything more than act as journeype

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank you and committee members for providing the Canadian Construction Association with the opportunity to appear before you today. Our association represents the non-residential side of the construction industry. We build Canada's infrastructure. We

Finance committee  I think it goes without saying that everyone understands how related the state of our highways and the state of our trade routes, etc., are to our economy and to prosperity for our country, and indeed, for our standard of living, and even our health, such as when it comes to our

Finance committee  In answering that very loaded question, what I will say is that the stimulus program was rolled out at light speed. It was done because of the tradition we've had in Canada of the partnerships that have been made with lower levels of government. We have—if I can use the pun—the i

Finance committee  I think it's important to make the distinction that it was a stimulus program, not an infrastructure program. As a stimulus program, it worked very effectively. What we want to see in terms of a successor program to the Building Canada plan, which is an infrastructure program,

Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  The private sector loves certainty.

Finance committee  Yes.