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Presentation to the Canadian Home Builders Association by
Peter Larose, Director General, Workplace Partnerships
February 25 th , 2009
Québec City, Québec

 Short-term labour market needs of Canadians and their families:
 Support for unemployed workers while they look for work.
 Assistance for displaced, long-tenured workers.
 Support for training and skills development.
 Longer-term challenges must also be considered:
 Labour shortages due to ageing workforce.
 Shift to knowledge-based economy.
 Anticipated skills shortages.
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 Economic stimulus strategy focuses on 4 areas:
– Helping Canadians and stimulating spending.
– Stimulating housing construction.
–
Immediate action to build infrastructure.
– Supporting businesses and communities.
 The Canada Skills and Transition strategy will provide a financial injection in a range of initiatives to:
– Help Canadians weather today’s economic storm.
– Provide them with the necessary training to prosper in tomorrow’s economy.
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 Strengthening employment benefits for Canadian workers.
 Freezing Employment Insurance (EI) rates for 2009.
 Enhancing the availability of training.
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Efficient Labour Force: reducing barriers to the mobility of
Canadians
Inclusive Labour Force: increasing the participation of all
Canadians in the workforce
Skilled Labour Force: enhance opportunities for
Canadians to acquire knowledge and skills
GoC addresses Canada’s labour market needs on all three fronts
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 Despite the current economic slowdown, there is a robust demand for skilled tradespeople to mitigate current and future shortages.
 Apprenticeship training leads to a new generation of highly-skilled and highly-mobile journeypersons.
 There are challenges for apprenticeship; skilled trade shortages, retirements, completion rates and employer participation.
 A proven industry-based method of workplace training that leads to industry defined certification in a skilled trade.
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Federal measures supporting apprenticeship and the skilled trades
 Budget 2009
 The Apprenticeship Completion Grant (ACG)
 Budget 2006
 The Apprenticeship Incentive Grant (AIG)
 The Apprenticeship Job Creation Tax Credit (AJCTC)
 The Tradesperson’s Tools Deduction (TTD)
 Budget 2005
 Trades and Apprenticeship Strategy (TAS)
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Update: National Occupational Classification
 Government of Canada is revising the National
Occupational Classification (NOC) for Census 2011.
 With this process, it is possible to make revisions to the structure of the NOC by changing or adding occupational groups.
 The CHBA has identified a number of new and existing occupations which will be studied by HRSDC/STC to determine if revisions or new groups are viable.
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 Established in 1958 as a federal-provincial/territorial
(F-P/T) partnership and is managed through Canadian
Council of Directors of Apprenticeship (CCDA).
 Industry-driven program.
 Red Seal trades are recognized as a standard of excellence.
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 Increased provincial and industry demands.
 Increased reliance on the Red Seal Program.
 Requirement to deliver on AIT commitments.
 Persistent skills shortages in some trades and regions.
 More trades interested in becoming Red Seal certified.
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 Greater national industry engagement in the Red Seal
Program and apprenticeship in general.
 Better oversight by senior officials and industry.
– Being more responsive to current labour market.
 Greater accountability and transparency to the public.
– Performance measures, service standards and public reporting.
– Transparent criteria for designation of new Red Seal trades .
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 Apprenticeship and the skilled trades are important.
 Greater national level involvement from industry and
P/Ts is essential to strengthen the Red Seal Program.
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