May 9, 2008

Labour Market

Labour Market Information program gets bulk of $5.5 million in federal funding

Funding boost validates CSC’s research efforts

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

A $5.5 million funding boost to the Construction Sector Council is not just extra cash in its coffers but also a pat on a back, says the council’s executive director.

“The funding is a great endorsement from both the industry and government for the work we have done,” says George Gritziotis, the CSC’s executive director.

“There is an insatiable appetite for more data about the labour market and our reports are of value and needed.”

Monte Solberg, federal human resources minister, announced the $5.5 million investment over the next three years during the recent Canadian Building Trades’ Legislative Conference. The funding will help develop increased labour market information, addressing recruitment and retention issues and broaden CSC outreach initiatives.

“Government cannot address labour market problems by itself, but private sector and government partnerships are working,” Solberg said at the announcement. “We are supporting one of Canada’s largest industries so that construction jobs can be filled with employees who have the right skills.”

Approximately $4.5 million of the funding is dedicated to the CSC’s Labour Market Information (LMI) Program. The LMI program is built upon a large network of regional and national committees which include over 300 volunteers.

“There is a huge amount of infrastructure built around the LMI forecast,” says Gritziotis. “Skilled labour issues are too big a problem to study in isolation. With this funding we can explore new solutions to upcoming skills shortages and provide even more relevant data.”

Another $258,000 will help the CSC to explore the potential of retaining older workers to improve the sustainability of the construction labour force.

“The concern is that with the aging workforce and retiring workers, a big part of them will take their knowledge and expertise with them,” says Gritziotis. “We want to explore ways to have them transfer that expertise and to possibly utilize them in different ways.”

Patrick Dillon, business manager, Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, says the analysis provided through the LMI program and the new outreach and research initiatives conducted by the CSC require the funding support it receives.

“We need to prepare and we need to know what trades we will need and where,” says Dillon. “Tradesmen are not picked off trees or right out of classrooms, they are trained on the job and we need to prepare for the capacity and ability to do so.”

As part of the $5.5 million in funding, $829,000 will help the CSC increase its outreach to industry partners at all levels, from local and regional to even international.

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