PM calls for business to spend more on training

Innovation Strategy seeks to remove immigration barriers, promote skilled trades

Prime Minister Jean Chretien promised “concrete action” to help raise the skill level of the Canadian workforce at a special summit in Toronto last month and challenged businesses to do their part by spending more money on training.

“I am saying to you tonight that business must invest in learning for their workers if they want to compete. Canada is not doing enough here. I challenge business and labour to jump on this imperative — for the sake of your workers, for the sake of your competitiveness. We must all do more. We must all do better,” he said in a speech read by Minister of Human Resources Development Canada Jane Stewart after he was grounded by a snowstorm in Quebec.

The Prime Minister’s speech opened the National Summit on Innovation and Learning, the culmination of a series of roundtables held across the country from May to October to gather feedback on the government’s Innovation Strategy, intended to improve innovation, skills and learning in Canada.

From those meetings 100 possible action items were identified by the government and presented to summit attendees. After a day of workshops and discussion, 22 early action items were identified for the government to move forward on. Six of these specifically address building a skilled and inclusive workforce and four others are meant to create a stronger culture of learning.

Among the actions chosen by delegates:

•Design immigration fast-tracking procedures to get highly skilled workers into the country.

•Remove barriers to the recognition of foreign credentials to improve the integration of immigrants into the labour force.

•Work with partners to promote the skilled trades as a career of choice.

•Create a Canadian Learning Institute to provide information on best practices for training and development.

The Innovation Strategy is based on two position papers released by the government in February, one by Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) and the other by Industry Canada.

The HRDC paper advocated increasing employer spending on training by one-third within five years. While none of the recommendations addressed this issue, Stewart said, in an interview with Canadian HR Reporter, increased spending by employers remains an objective but it isn’t clear how best to achieve it.

“I think we are still grappling with the right strategies to unlock the workplace as a venue for life-long learning,” she said.

For example, Quebec has unique legislation that requires employers to spend one per cent of their payroll on training or else pay a one per cent tax. However many small employers, frustrated by the administration involved, just pay the tax which ends up being used, in effect, to subsidize training in larger organizations, said Stewart.

Tax credits no panacea

Often throughout the 33 regional summits it was suggested tax credits be used to encourage employer spending on training.

“Tax credits come up from time to time but I have yet to be convinced that it is a panacea or a real solution,” she said.

Employers have to appreciate the value of investing in training before being given tax breaks and many employers still do not understand why they should be spending money on training, she said.

Helping employers understand the value of training could be part of the Canadian Learning Institute’s mandate, she added.

Zabeen Hirji, senior vice-president, corporate human resources, at Royal Bank, attended the summit and said she hopes to see the government commit money to the strategy in the next budget.

It’s unlikely any of the proposed recommendations would have a direct impact on the Royal Bank but creating a more highly skilled workforce will benefit the entire country, she said. The greatest gains will come from the government changing attitudes about innovation and learning and development rather than the introduction of new policies.

“Programs and policies are clearly important but in many ways they are not enough,” she said. The government must change mindsets and culture, she said. “That is what is going to make it transformational.”

Pierre Dubois, president of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association, said he was disappointed by the summit.

“Everything seemed to be pre-arranged,” he said. Workshop participants were given a list of recommendations and then told to pick three and prioritize them. There were too many people involved and that prevented him from voicing the concerns of the plastics industry, he said.

He said he still supports the Innovation Strategy but added the real test will be whether or not it shows up in the next budget.

George Nakitsas, assistant to the Canadian national director of the United Steelworkers of America, said much of the action coming from the government deals with promoting learning and training and providing information, but to make a real impact, it must play a bigger role in delivery of training — a responsibility the federal government handed over to the provinces in the ’90s.

“If the complaint is that companies aren’t investing enough, the assistance can’t only be in terms of telling them what is available to them,” he said.

Sector councils are a good example of federal money well spent, but the government must be willing to more broadly fund, on a cost-shared basis, joint ventures by unions and industry that deliver training to employees.

Nowshad Ali, executive director of the Toronto Training Board, did not attend the summit but has been following the evolution of the strategy. He said there are a number of simple things that can be done to encourage more training and raise the skill level of the Canadian workforce.

He said the government should expand bridging programs to get professional immigrants the assistance they need to become qualified in their fields. Too many highly skilled immigrants end up taking low-skilled jobs because they need an income right away but then it becomes difficult to get qualified to work in their professions in Canada. Bridging programs facilitate the transition from another country and include some subsidies.

The government could also have a positive impact on the promotion of training by ensuring all private-sector suppliers and contractors to the federal government provide a minimum of training opportunities for their workers, he said. His board has made a similar recommendation to the City of Toronto.

He also said simple changes to the tax system would encourage training. For example in some cases employer funded, non-job related training is considered a taxable benefit. That should stop, said Ali.

He also said people should be able to take money out of their retirement savings plan and spend it on training without being taxed.

And while tax credits don’t appear to be on the short-term agenda for the government, Ali said it should be — in some cases.

Small businesses and entrepreneurs are a large part of the Canadian economy, but it is very difficult for them to train. “(Training) is almost non-existent now,” he said.

“One of the things we recommend is to give small employers a tax credit to offer training,” he said.

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