Progressive Contractors Association of Canada supports Canada Job Grant

Encourages federal and provincial ministers to have a positive discussion on lasting solutions to skilled labour shortages in Canada

TORONTO, Nov. 7, 2013 /CNW/ - The Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA) looks forward to a positive discussion between the federal and provincial ministers responsible for skills training and labour markets, this Friday, in Toronto.

"Increasingly, employers in Canada's construction industry are struggling to find workers with the right skills at the right time in the right place," said Sean Reid, Federal Director of PCA. "It is our hope that the ministers responsible for skills training and labour in Canada will have a positive discussion on Friday so there is a lasting solution to the issue of worker shortages in Canada."

Canadian construction businesses have identified skills shortages and mismatches across several key trades and sectors. This is particularly problematic at a time when many Canadians are out of work.  PCA believes a new solution is needed and federal leadership, in the form of the Canada Job Grant, is a good place to start.

In designing the Canada Job Grant, the federal government correctly recognized three important criteria essential to building a training system that will create more jobs in Canada: it is national in scope; will be driven by the employers who create the jobs; and, flexible in its application.

"We believe a lasting, made in Canada solution, to the issue of skilled worker shortages, is possible.  The first step for the federal and provincial governments is to maintain a positive dialogue so that a workable, national solution can be implemented," concluded Reid.

PCA is the voice of progressive unionized employers in Canada's construction industry. PCA member companies employ more than 25,000 skilled construction workers across Canada, represented primarily by the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC). PCA member companies are responsible for 40 percent of energy and natural resource construction projects in British Columbia and Alberta and are leaders in infrastructure construction across Canada.

SOURCE: Progressive Contractors Association of Canada

Sean Reid
Federal Director
Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA)
289-335-1181 ext. 1
www.pcac.ca