11 March 2008
B.C.’s population is expecting a boost from people moving from Ontario and Quebec
Posted by Ryan Coffey under: Nanaimo Profile and Events; Nanaimo Real Estate Market; Uncategorized .
Last week I put up an article about this very cheeky advertising campaign the B.C. provincial government went on to draw workers from Ontario and Quebec to B.C. This is a follow up on that story. I got a real kick out of it this weekend since the camapaign focuses on the glut of jobs we have in B.C. as well as the much milder weather. I describe it as cheeky because they apparently put images of daffodils all over the floors of the major train station of each city, and said something to the effect of “right now, in B.C., the daffodils are coming up”. Having gone to university in Nova Scotia, where I thought life was very very cold to the point of my never stopping complaining, I thought the idea was quite amusing but likely to be effective. But then those huge snow storms hit those areas of Canada this past weekend while I was going for a walk in the nice sunny weather, and many people were out in their t shirts and no jackets. Maybe our provincial government has more influence than they let on, if they can control the weather to add oomph to their advertising campaigns who knows what else they can do!
I found some photos at the Ministry of Economic Development site for this and have pasted them below the article.
Ryan
Ont. workers heading West
By TOM GODFREY, SUN MEDIA
The Toronto Sun
By drips and drabs, by the dozen and the hundreds, skilled Ontario workers are pulling up stakes and moving elsewhere.
Long-term skilled job vacancy numbers and federal labour mobility statistics show Ontario is increasingly losing talent and experience to other jurisdictions — and to Western Canada in particular.
Ontario will be short more than 360,000 skilled workers by 2025 and this can escalate to 560,000 jobs by 2030, according to the Conference Board of Canada.
“We aren’t producing the numbers of highly skilled graduates needed to replace an aging workforce,” said Dr. Rick Miner, past chairman of Colleges Ontario and now president of Seneca College.
And for the first time in this country’s history, half the workers are over 40. The impending retirement of tens of thousands of baby boomers will leave a massive hole in this province’s labour force.
NATIONAL STRATEGY
“We run a serious risk of not providing the province with the numbers and types of workers required,” Miner said.
Canada needs a comprehensive plan to lure and maintain workers, he said.
“Our political leaders must set a course of action in the workforce for the challenges ahead.”
Right now, there are pieces of a plan, but no national strategy.
As a start, labour leaders nationwide are calling on Ottawa to boost immigration to feed the country’s voracious demand for skilled workers.
Without more bodies to meet growing demand for workers with know-how, Canada’s economy will suffer and the provinces increasingly will face cannibalistic competition from each other and the U.S.
Statistics Canada reports more than 500,000 workers moved to a different province between 2001 and 2006 to find a job.
Alberta was the top destination with an estimated 160,000 workers moving there from other parts of Canada.
Alberta and British Columbia have begun to splash big bucks on cash incentives, advertising campaigns and perks to lure able-bodied Toronto workers out west.
So pressing is a shortage of workers that B.C.’s labour boss was at Toronto’s Union Station last Monday trying to recruit commuters with $20 an hour jobs for those willing to relocate.
“We will have one million job openings in the next 12 years,” Colin Hansen, the B.C. minister of economic development and the Olympics, told the Sunday Sun.
“We have employers in most parts of the economy with jobs they cannot fill,” Hansen said.
B.C. companies are struggling to meet expansion plans, are operating with reduced shifts or can’t stay open on Sundays due to the shortage.
But Hansen rejected the notion of B.C. as an inter-provincial raider.
“We are not trying to steal workers from other provinces,” he stressed. “We want to let Canadians know that there are job opportunities in British Columbia.”
Hansen said more than 1,200 applicants showed up for job fairs this month in Kitchener, Windsor, London and Toronto expressing interest in a job on the West Coast.
To try to fill the vacancies, the B.C. government has also taken their advertising blitz to the U.S., China, India and Philippines. They’re actively recruiting in Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.
“The Olympics created an economic involvement in B.C.,” Hansen said. “The sheer power and size of the Olympics create many jobs with wages that are competitive anywhere in Canada.”
But pilfering skilled labourers from elsewhere, as such recruitment practices have been characterized, at best are a Band-Aid solution to a broader problem, business and labour leaders say.
The Ontario Chamber of Commerce estimates the province will face a shortage of 100,000 skilled trades workers in the manufacturing sector in the next 15 years. Over 10 years, it is estimated the mining industry alone will be short 81,000 workers.
Although Ontario lost 20,000 manufacturing jobs in February, it gained 31,000 construction jobs, another 20,000 in business, building and support services and 11,000 government jobs.
It’s broadly anticipated America’s ongoing flirtation with recession will slow the Ontario economy over the next year; however, long-term demand for skilled labour, even just to replace retiring boomers, will create ongoing skilled labour vacancies.
Cosmo Manella, director of government relations for the Labourers International Union of North America, said Ottawa has to bring more skilled workers from other countries to fill the void.
“We need to target immigrants from Portugal, Latin America and Eastern Europe,” Manella said. “Canada is still the most attractive country in the world.”
He suggested the government task a selection committee to travel abroad and recruit workers for Canada, who can be distributed to areas where the needs are.
While Ontario’s skilled workers may be targeted by the west right now, the east will be next.
Atlantic Canada will need up to 10,000 workers within four years to feed growth there and will soon face a labour shortage, Manella said.
“Workers can be expedited to get to Canada faster,” he said. “The government can get people here in a month if they want to.”
Meanwhile, Mike Collins-Williams, of the Ontario Home Builders Association, warned there has to be more trades and shop programs in Ontario schools to lure students to meet home-grown demand for skilled workers.
The skilled labour shortage already has buyers feeling the pinch because it takes longer for a home or condo to be completed after purchase, Collins-Williams said.
“The delays are getting longer and that’s part of the labour shortage,” he said. “This is an ongoing concern because many of our workers are leaving for other provinces.”
Collins-Williams said of the 68,123 new homes built in Ontario last year, about 33,300 were in the GTA.
Illegal immigrants are increasingly hired in the construction industry by employers desperate for workers.
To help meet some of this demand, Ontario’s immigration ministry last May started a nominee program that allows employers to hire 500 skilled workers including international students to fill jobs where labour is in short supply.
And Ontario women’s issues minister Deborah Matthews last Thursday said she’s spending $1.5 million to provide 152 low-income women with training in carpentry, welding, horticulture and other trades to help with the worker shortage.
“Immigration is a cornerstone of Ontario’s economic prosperity and social fabric,” said the province’s immigration minister Michael Chan. “Half of all the immigrants to Canada — an average of 130,000 people every year– make Ontario their home.”
TEMPORARY WORKERS
Federal immigration spokesman Karen Shadd-Evelyn said a number of plans are in place for companies to bring in temporary workers.
Shadd-Evelyn said for jobs where labour shortages are acute, officials have reduced the recruitment efforts employers must show before a foreign worker is considered for a position.
She said regional lists of “occupations under pressure” in B.C., Alberta and Ontario ensure that jobs, which are affected by labour shortages, are filled more quickly. These lists are reviewed regularly to ensure they reflect the Canadian labour market.
Two new temporary foreign worker units have been created in Moncton and Toronto to help employers and the business community bring in workers, she said.
About 125,000 temporary foreign workers were admitted to Canada last year.
Recruiting more students into skilled jobs is also part of the solution.
Colleges Ontario said there are 150,000 full-time and 350,000 part-time students here but they’re calling for an increase of 30,000 pupils over five years to help ease Ontario’s labour shortage.
Terry Mundell, president of the Greater Toronto Hotel Association, said the skills shortage is already hurting sectors like tourism, construction and information technology.
“We need to ensure that young people, older workers and new Canadians get the skills and training they need,” Mundell said.
March 3, 2008 – Colin Hansen, Minister of Economic Development, was in Toronto’s Union Subway Station handing out daffodils to help launch the Province’s “Your Dream Job is Here” promotional campaign. Also running in Montreal’s Berri-UQAM Station, the campaign will promote B.C.’s economic and lifestyle advantages to more than 400 thousand transit riders in the two cities every day this month. The campaign also drives people to the www.canadaspacificgateway.com website.
Minister Hansen in front of the full floor graphic promoting B.C.’s flowering daffodils.
Transit riders stream through the station in front of the B.C. promotional ads on every wall.