August 20, 2008

Canadian Construction Association

CCA calls on federal government to bolster college infrastructure funding

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

The federal government has a key role to play in ensuring that Canada’s colleges can deliver the training that is required to meet shortages of skilled trades and supervisory personnel, says the Canadian Construction Association (CCA).

In a pre-budget submission to the Commons finance committee, the association said the publicly funded colleges are best positioned to meet the human resources challenges facing the country.

Yet, years of under-funding and neglect have taken their toll. Most colleges do not possess the physical and human infrastructure necessary to meet the increasing demand on their resources, CCA said.

“CCA feels that the need to enhance infrastructure funding for the community colleges is critical to Canada meeting its skilled shortage challenge and that leadership is required at the federal level,” the association said.

“The importance and urgency of this matter requires a national effort with the same kind of effective and determined leadership that the federal government has displayed in such areas as municipal infrastructure renewal.”

Data compiled by the Construction Sector Council indicates that 250,000 new construction workers will be required by 2016 to replace retiring workers and keep pace with rising demand.

In addition, some 15,500 new construction supervisors will be needed by 2025.

Many of Canada’s construction workers, both trades and supervisors, are trained by the community colleges.

Because of past neglect, the college system in Canada is now unable to provide “the effective and modern” training that construction and other industries “desperately” require, CCA said.

The association said an infusion of funding is critical in three key areas. These are:

• Physical infrastructure: Many facilities were built upwards of 45 years ago. CCA said these institutions have not been able to perform the “appropriate maintenance” or upkeep, let alone expand to meet increasing demand. A recent study conducted by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) estimated that the colleges need an immediate injection of some $6.5 billion simply to retrofit or upgrade their infrastructure to secure existing capacity.

• Equipment: Colleges lack an adequate inventory of leading-edge equipment for training students. The ACCC survey found that most are making due with used or recycled equipment. CCA said hundreds of millions of dollars are needed to address this deficiency.

• Staff/instructors: Many colleges do not possess sufficient capacity to deliver the expanded programs and courses that are required to meet the increasing demand for highly skilled workers.

In an interview, CCA chair Paul Charette said the need for a significantly enhanced and strategic investment in the college system was deemed to be the top priority in terms of the pre-budget submission.

“We wanted to get this on the government’s radar screen,” said Charette, whose association is part of a coalition pressing for increased funding for the colleges, which CCA describes as ‘the poor cousins” of the universities.

“The skilled trades shortage is a hot button issue not only for our members, but for other industries as well. We are all fishing for skilled labour in an ever-shrinking pond.”

The coalition is drafting a two-pronged strategy for making its case to the government.

“If there is an election this fall, we’ll make it an election platform issue,” Charette said. “Otherwise, we will exert pressure on the government to get funding into the next budget.”

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