Finance committee  Thank you very much for the question. There are a couple of points I want to make. Easing restrictions to get EI is so important. There's a long lag time between when you're laid off and when you actually get your first paycheque. That waiting period is a real challenge for con

Finance committee  Let me start by saying that our members, particularly in Alberta, are very concerned about transitioning from the energy sector to other sectors, so the transition is very important to us. Second, we are working with the government to identify areas in the new economy, in the gre

Finance committee  Thank you very much for the question. You're absolutely right. The child care benefit program would allow more women to enter the trades, to backfill the spaces that we're losing members from through attrition. Women in the trades right now make up about 6% or 7%, and it varies

Finance committee  Sure.

Finance committee  Thank you, Ms. Dzerowicz. I have a couple of points before I hand the question to Mr. Strickland. The items listed in the budget do a couple of things. One is that it has put money into areas that are needed to stimulate the economy. That's one benefit. Second, in a lot of the

Finance committee  I am. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, and thank you very much for the opportunity to address you today on Bill C-30 and the effect the budget will have on the skilled trades workers in Canada. My name is Robert Kucheran. I am the chair of the Canadian executive board of Ca

Human Resources committee  We don't have sick leave in the construction industry. The nature of the business is not to have sick days. For partner industries that negotiate sick benefits into their agreements, God bless them, and I support that, but the nature of construction is that we don't have seniorit

Human Resources committee  Thank you for that question. Of course, we're involved in residential construction, mostly in the greater Toronto area, but there is a need for affordable housing, and we would support that. I will recheck our list of shovel-ready projects, but I think it's a good point to have

Human Resources committee  Yes. I mentioned the percentage of women in Newfoundland, which is very good. That high rate still exists today, so the retention factor is very successful there. In Quebec in my own particular trade, under the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, we have a very hig

Human Resources committee  I totally agree. I think the government has a real chance to engage with us in our list of shovel-ready projects. That includes your province as well. I think those types of jobs or those types of projects are important to the overall health of Canada. More importantly, they'll c

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. As far as I understand it, you're asking what the government has done to continue with the success.

Human Resources committee  Oh, okay. Well, we applaud the government for what they have done so far with incentives like the CERB program. As well, I realize that health and safety tends to be a provincial matter, but the federal government, through the Minister of Public Services and Procurement, can en

Human Resources committee  It is an opportunity for us all to engage, particularly with women. As I said, community benefit agreements allow greater access for women to get into the trades. As I mentioned, there's the success story in Newfoundland. That was made available because of the CBAs and the requir

Human Resources committee  Of course, we've always supported the oil industry and the development of the oil industry in Canada, because it is a significant contributor to Canada's GDP in all sectors. As you know, our members go to work from right across Canada into the Wood Buffalo area and bring back t

Human Resources committee  They're very important. Of course, I heard former vice-president Biden make those comments last week. That concerns us, as it would anybody in the construction industry. We're monitoring that, and we're doing what we can in Canada—but also, more importantly, stateside—to get peo