April 25, 2008

Labour Market

Plan to bolster construction skills in Canada takes its cue from industry association

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

A federal human resource committee’s recommendations to improve employability in Canada have a foundation in ones the Canadian Construction Association previously has lobbied for.

“The report’s recommendations mirror many of the recommendations we made to the committee when we appeared before them,” says Jeff Morrison, director of government and public affairs at the CCA.

“It is not often that everything you present makes it in, but this time it did.”

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources recently issued a report called Employability in Canada.

The committee looked at how to strengthen Canada’s supply of skilled workers as the workforce gets older. CCA presented its concerns and recommendations to the committee two years ago.

The reports recommendations in areas of temporary foreign workers, immigration, inter-provincial labour mobility, seasonal workers, Red Seal training and increasing training capacity at colleges were just some of the issues CCA presented which found their way into the report.

“The labour crunch is getting on the radar of not just Canadians but politicians as well,” notes Morrison. ‘There are some concrete solutions they have recognized for the government to approve.”

Slower growth in the supply of skills, combined with rising skills needs of the labour market only increases the likelihood the skills shortages problem currently facing some employers across the country will worsen, the report concludes.

Among the committees recommendations:

• Ottawa should support the establishment of stronger links between the skills needs identified by sector councils and those provided through the educational system to ensure curricula reflects and continues to develop to meet Canada’s socio-economic needs

• Human Resources and Social Development Canada should improve the quality and timeliness of labour market information and provide more detailed skills-based demand and supply forecasts for regional and local labour markets.

• Human Resources and Social Development Canada should continue to work with the Canadian Council of Directors of Apprenticeship to standardize apprenticeship training and certification programs across the country, to increase the number of Red Seal certifications and to extend Red Seal designations to trades that require compulsory certification.

• The federal government should provide funding to assist individuals who agree to relocate to work in occupations experiencing skills shortages.

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