Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Daniel Cloutier and I am the Quebec director of Unifor.

Unifor is Canada’s largest private sector union. We are active in over 20 industrial sectors and we represent 320,000 members in Canada, including 55,000 in Quebec.

I want to thank you for the invitation to participate in the committee's work in order to provide you with our members' views. With me is Simon Lavigne, who is the national representative in Unifor's research department.

The pre‑budget consultations cover a wide range of issues, and so I invite you to review Unifor's complete brief, which we submitted to you.

The reason I am here today is to draw your attention to a specific industrial sector that employs more than 11,000 Unifor members, including 7,000 in Quebec alone: the aerospace industry. This is a highly strategic industry that is heavily unionized. For several decades, it has given workers the chance to put down firm roots in the middle class and enjoy good, well-paid jobs.

Aerospace is a key industry for Canada. It also plays a central role in Quebec's manufacturing landscape. In fact, 14% of Quebec's total exports are connected with this industry. Montreal is the world's third-largest aerospace industry centre: 75% of Canadian aerospace R and D is done right here in the Montreal region.

Our capacity to design, manufacture and certify aircraft is a source of pride, but also a strategic asset that we have to protect. At present, when we examine the sector, we observe some concerning trends. In fact, the industry has still not recovered after the pandemic.

Current R and D spending in the aerospace industry and the contribution to gross domestic product that it generates are below 2018 levels. Over the last five years, the average wage advantage the aerospace industry has over all other sectors has dropped by almost 40%. The labour shortage and the challenge of replacing members of our work crews have not abated. Disruptions in the supply chain have not been entirely resolved. At the same time, our main competitors are adopting ambitious industrial strategies that focus on developing their own national capacity.

What has the federal government been doing all this time? It is making piecemeal investments, playing it by ear, and not working proactively to ensure that the billions of dollars we are spending on procurement will provide job security for Canadian workers.

The worst thing of all is the strategic vacuum we are seeing at present. Ottawa is sitting on the sidelines, even though it controls the basic levers: defence, air transportation, tax policy, research, innovation funds, foreign trade, diplomacy and on and on.

We are calling for a clear strategic framework to guide federal government action, to play to our strengths, to make up for our weaknesses, and to foster linkages among stakeholders. Obviously, major funding and long-term, sustained investment will have to be provided in order to put a strategy like this in place.

On September 26, in Montreal, Unifor revealed its industrial policy for the aerospace industry. We spoke with our members and to employers, training centres and academics, with the aim of developing a vision for workers themselves. It is their vision. It consists of four pillars and 27 targeted recommendations and I urge you to read it.

I would like to draw your attention to some of the potential solutions we are proposing.

First, Unifor is calling for the creation of a national industrial strategy for the aerospace industry. This kind of strategy is a mandatory path for calibrating our investments better. A policy for benefits with no industrial policy is like a car with no steering wheel.

Second, we are asking for an aerospace development council to be created that will bring together the main stakeholders in the sector, including the unions, to put the strategy into effect over time.

Third, Unifor is calling for a comprehensive increase in workforce attraction, training and adaptation funding, in partnership with the provincial governments, which have jurisdiction in these fields.

And fourth, Unifor is calling for the creation of a fund devoted exclusively to the aerospace industry, a flexible funding program, and made-to-measure tools that might even include taking an equity stake on terms that must be adhered to.

We believe that we must be proactive in order to ensure that the billions of dollars being spent will directly benefit workers in Quebec and Canada. The future of our aerospace cluster depends on being more consistent and more ambitious. That is what our members who work at Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney, CAE, Héroux‑Devtek or MDA believe. This has been talked about for decades; we believe it is time to act.

Thank you for your attention. We are at your disposal to answer your questions.