TRAN Committee Report

Supplementary opinion

Report on the labor shortage in the transportation sector

By the office of Xavier Barsalou-Duval

Presented to The Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities

February 23rd 2023

Introduction

First, the Bloc Québécois salutes the members of the Committee as well as the committee staff for the professionalism they have shown and the work they have accomplished during this study and thanks all the witnesses and citizens who shared their perspective on labour shortages in the transport sector. Our supply chains depend on the hundreds of thousands of workers who painstakingly move the goods we and our industries consume every day. Recognizing their invaluable contribution and recognizing methods to make their jobs more attractive are an important part of this report.

However, it is also important to recognize the agency of provinces in the search for solutions to the labour shortage. The Bloc Québécois fights day in and day out to ensure that the jurisdictions of the provinces are respected and that the efforts of the federal government are focused on the jurisdictions where it can act. It is therefore essential to point out that some of the report's recommendations would have the collateral effect of eroding the exclusive jurisdiction of the provinces with respect to training and education.

Exclusive Jurisdictions

The Canadian constitution adopted in 1982 is the result of an agreement between the federal government and nine Canadian provinces. Québec, regardless of the government that it elected, has never put its signature under the document. The constitutional law still applies on its territory, and it is expected that the federal government respects the separation of powers between the levels of government.

Education is a clearly defined as the responsibility of provincial governments. The question is decided unambiguously by the Supreme Court. It is the opinion of the Bloc Québécois that recommendations 4, 8 and 15 of this report aim to encroach on the exclusive provincial jurisdiction in education. Recommendation 10, for its part, is drafted in such a way as to concern the question of education, but to request an intervention according to the federal spending power, recognized as legitimate on several occasions by the Supreme Court. Recommendation 4, for example, reads as follows:

‘’That the Government of Canada collaborate with provinces, territories and relevant stakeholders to align training programs and funding to support key transportation positions across transportation modes, and to establish programs aimed to standardize professional designations and ensure their transferability across Canada.’’

The reality of work in each of the provinces, especially in Québec, is different from elsewhere in Canada. Removing agency from the provinces in the training of their workforce would create a workforce that is less adapted to the reality of the environment in which they work. It is therefore in the opinion of the Bloc Québécois that this recommendation could not be implemented while respecting the exclusive jurisdictions of the provinces, as it requires direct intervention in professional educational curriculums.

Workforce pools

The report's recommendations that affect training and education are intended to help workers who live in a province with a labour surplus to be able to find a job in a province that is suffering from a labour shortage. This would allow the worker to find a job, reducing social service expenditures in the province of origin and increasing tax revenues in the province of arrival. However, we see little variability in the unemployment rates of provinces with more than one million inhabitants. There is no pool of unemployed workers who could come to fill available jobs elsewhere. The witnesses heard during the study in committee referred instead to the recognition of international credentials:

"It [the Canadian Ferry Association] is also calling on the Government of Canada to consider recognizing, for naval officers and naval engineers, credentials from countries that meet the requirements of the International Maritime Organization.’’

The pool of available workers is indeed outside our borders, and it is rather on the recognition of their skills that the federal government should focus to allow a temporary reduction of the pressure on the local labour pool.

Conclusion

The labor shortage in the transportation sector jeopardizes our supply chains and the quality of life of workers in the sector. It is important to provide serious solutions that respect the Quebec and Canadian legal framework. Asking the federal government to act on training and education would not only be unconstitutional, but also counterproductive. Economic studies also show that in the medium or long term, immigration does not reduce the number of jobs available in an economy. It is therefore important to go further in the reflection and include incentives to increase productivity such as automation and continuous training to reduce the number of working hours necessary for the delivery of our goods. It is also important to consider fiscal incentives to encourage workers who wish to stay in the labor market longer before retirement.