Good afternoon, Chair and committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you on this important subject.

The Canadian Labour Congress advocates on national issues on behalf of three million working people. Many of the workers we speak on behalf of work in Canada's child care, education, health care, social services, community care and seniors care sectors.

This HUMA committee study focuses on labour shortages, working conditions and the care economy. In our view, the staffing challenges in the care economy result from the following causes: heavy demand of unpaid work among the workforce dominated by women; staffing shortages fuelled by years and even decades of fiscal austerity and spending cuts, leading to high workloads and poor retention; low wages and poor working conditions; rising harassment and violence; and a lack of workforce planning.

While the pandemic had us celebrating care workers as heroes, all of these challenges were not only exposed but compounded, bringing care workers and care sectors to a breaking point. We need a new strategy of systematically investing in care workers to supply current and future labour needs. One important step in the direction of this new strategy is the progress towards a national system of affordable, accessible child care in Canada. This is a crucial investment in women's full and equal labour market participation. We want this to result in well-paid and high-quality early learning and child care jobs.

To continue to combat inequalities in the gender division of paid and unpaid care, and to ensure decent jobs and high-quality care for children, adults and seniors, it's essential to invest in high-quality public services and workforce planning now. That's why we are urging the government to establish a care economy commission to develop and implement a broader care strategy for Canada. At its heart must be a workforce planning strategy for Canada's future care economy workforce.

Now I'd like to offer some critical perspectives on the way labour shortages are portrayed in the media. In economics 101, if demand for workers exceeds supply, salaries will be bid up until the market clears. Most labour shortages should disappear as employers raise wages and attract more workers. However, wage growth has actually been modest.

Year-over-year average hourly rate growth has been about 2.6% over the last three months. This is in line with prepandemic wage growth and well behind inflation. Wage offers for new hires in some job categories has risen faster, but in many industries and occupations where employers are complaining about labour shortages, wage increases have been slower than average. This ought to be one clue that there's more to the story.

Another clue is that employers have been complaining about labour shortages all the way through this pandemic. In May 2020, the official jobless rate in Canada was 13.7%. One-third of the labour force was jobless and wanting work or was underemployed and wanting more hours of work. Despite this, employers began to complain about labour shortages.

In reality when we hear the complaint about labour shortages, what we are hearing is that it's difficult to find workers with exactly the right skills, attitude and work experience needed at the price that an employer is willing to pay.

Now to be sure, there are long-standing and genuine skill shortages in specialized skilled trades. Outside the building trades, however, employers often expect workers to show up ready to work on the employers' terms, having already accumulated the precise skills and work experience required. The notion that employers are responsible for recruiting and retaining employees, and then training and developing them to meet the changing skills needs seems to have been abandoned.

To be sure, there are many employers that invest in training and workforce development to cope with current and anticipated labour needs, but most employers in Canada invest very little in training and workforce development. When employers do provide training, they tend to provide it to workers who already have high levels of education attainment. Workers who need the training the most are the least likely to receive it.

From a lack of workplace pensions and benefits, to a lack of learning and training opportunities, to an absence of paid sick leave and adequate health and safety protections, far too many workers in this country are treated as disposable. This approach is a recipe for ongoing complaints about unfilled job vacancies and an inability to find workers. It's why unions talk about a good job shortage instead of a labour shortage.

I'll stop here, but I would be happy to elaborate on any of this in response to the members' questions.

Thank you.

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