Remarks for Wayne G. Wouters at the Association of Canadian Community Colleges
November 29, 2010
Check against delivery
Introduction
Hello everyone. I am very happy to be here this evening. Thank you for your invitation and warm introduction.
I am delighted that you’ve invited me back again. This is a signal that you are as committed to this cause and mission as I am.
I am pleased to be here with you and I believe that events such as this are vital in identifying solutions for the economic, demographic and social challenges Canada is facing.
Recent Visits to Colleges and Universities
I have been spending a lot of time with community colleges and universities lately!
I am not sure if I am beginning to feel nostalgic for my student or lecturer days or just getting ideas of courses I can take in my spare time.
There are some great programs out there and you know that lifelong learning is a priority for the Public Service!
I was in Saskatoon and Winnipeg two weeks ago where I had an opportunity to meet with the Johnson-Shoyama School of Public Policy and the President of Red River College.
I was very impressed with the great work the College is doing at the Centre for Aerospace Training & Technology.
This Friday I will be in Montreal meeting with a cross section of stakeholders and the École de technologie supérieure.
I hope to learn more about the institute’s focus on solar energy and its work on entrepreneurship and technology transfer with SMEs, business and industry.
I find visiting such facilities and meeting with faculty and students tremendously helpful in situating myself with respect to the role and strength of learning institutions in local and regional economies.
I will not take much of your time this evening reviewing the year that is about to pass. You are all very aware of the struggles and victories we’ve experienced in 2010.
I will, however, touch briefly on what I consider our most significant challenges as they provide context for why events like “ACCC on Parliament Hill 2010” are so important.
Economic Challenges
Canada has emerged from the global recession in much better condition than many of its friends and neighbours.
The Irish Situation
Last week Ireland joined Greece in being the second member of the EU to accept an emergency bailout package.
This bailout was made possible by loans from the IMF and the European Union itself.
In return for this financial assistance, Ireland has agreed to adopt strict and tough austerity measures similar to actions that have been taken in other European nations.
Just to put this bailout in context and bring it home to you, it amounts to $25,000 for every man, woman and child in Ireland.
As we witness this crisis, we find ourselves worrying and wondering about who may be next. We look at Portugal and Spain and hope that they are not soon to be contenders for the next bailout.
Credit for our success, in large part, must go to our strong fundamentals, our solid fiscal and monetary fundamentals, and sound regulation and supervision of the financial sector.
The Economic Action Plan
We began our journey through the worst recession since the 1930s from a position of strength and our starting point gave us the latitude necessary to enact measures to support the economy through this delicate period.
This ensured that the Economic Action Plan (EAP) stimulus package we put in place to respond to Canadians in need, had the right conditions to take root swiftly and effectively.
The OECD, the IMF and the Auditor General have all credited the EAP with our success in staying the course and keeping our head above water through this seismic economic downturn.
To be honest, it hasn’t been easy or painless and the tough times are not over yet.
In its fall fiscal update the federal government committed to a balanced budget by 2016 while maintaining health and social transfers at current growth rates.
To better position Canada to meet these targets, federal government departments are working through operating budget freezes and undergoing administrative and strategic reviews.
Diversifying Trade
Being part of the global economy and a trading nation, we are also affected by what happens south of our border.
According to the Commerce Department, U.S.-based businesses earned $450 billion in profit during the recently completed third quarter.
This is an all-time record, albeit not inflation adjusted.
Yet, at the same time that American business is doing better than it ever has before, the unemployment rate remains stubbornly high.
U.S. unemployment is sitting at a bit above 9.6 percent, with close to 15 million U.S. citizens sitting at home waiting for an opportunity to arise.
The paradox of the U.S. economy, the fact that U.S. business is neither hiring nor investing, means that we must ramp up our ongoing efforts to expand existing non-traditional markets and pursue new ones.
And in the process of enhancing business ties we should also target their learning institutions.
Canada lags behind the U.S., U.K. and Australia in attracting foreign students and yet we have so much to offer.
In Canada, international students find an excellent and quality education as well as a warm welcome and an open society.
In my view, these students will not only have the ability to meet some of the demand for skilled knowledge workers here in Canada, but will also help market Canada abroad through their increased understanding of Canadian business and culture.
Demographic Challenges
In addition to economic challenges, we have demographic ones.
On this front, Canada is in good company. We are better off than Japan, which now has a negative birthrate. We are also better off than Italy or Germany both of which are experiencing falling birth rates. But this victory, if you can call it that, is a bit hollow.
Immigration will not be sufficient to reverse our falling birth rate but it will play a major role in replenishing our workforce.
An Inclusive Talent Pool
As immigrants have historically shown higher unemployment rates, in making Canada a welcoming nation, we must continue to ensure that those who choose Canada as their new home are able to fulfill their potential.
Our ongoing efforts with respect to foreign education credential recognition, helping new Canadians upgrade their skills and assisting them in acquiring Canadian experience, are central in facilitating the entry of immigrants into the labour force.
Inclusivity in the labour market extends beyond recent immigrants and new Canadians. It includes Aboriginals and thousands of Canadian-born people with disabilities too.
If our marginalized populations do not make significant gains in the short and medium term, we will entrench an inner Canada, not unlike an inner city, and lose thousands of Canadians who would and should show great promise.
As I noted, we are in good company, meaning that Canada is competing against the world for high quality professionals.
The stakes are high and poaching is not at all uncommon.
Just ask the South African medical schools who routinely lose their newly graduated doctors and nurses to better funded foreign hospitals.
The Role of Canada’s Community Colleges
But despite these challenges, I am actually feeling pretty optimistic.
For starters, I think we are on the right track in no small part due to organizations such as yours.
I believe that we are well placed to address some of our labour market challenges because of the forays you have made into hundreds of communities across Canada and the relationships you have built from coast to coast to coast.
This intelligence you gather on a daily basis means you are well versed in regional labour market issues and have an accurate snapshot of the demographics on the ground.
You use this information in identifying gaps and shortages specific to regional or local labour markets, designing and planning courses and curriculums to address these challenges and to market your services to those who would benefit.
The data you mine allows Canada’s community colleges to be more adaptable, nimble and responsive in working with employers to help Canadians develop the advanced skills set they need to qualify for the jobs of the future.
You serve students who are just leaving high school, but also older adults who are re-entering the world of learning to upskill or reskill.
You also reach out to individuals who have traditionally had less access to post-secondary education.
For this reason, I believe that you are central to the solutions needed to address challenges Canada is facing on the economic, trade, demographic, health care and job market front.
And there is good reason for my optimism. Let me share a success story.
A Success Story
I had an opportunity to visit Red River College’s Centre for Aerospace Technology and Training, or CATT for short, when I was in Winnipeg on November 15.
I was quite impressed by what I saw and I mention CATT as it illustrates quite well the point I was just making.
Red River College established CATT in response to industry needs for research and development in key technological areas.
The Centre specializes in state-of-the-art technologies that are used for aerospace manufacturing, maintenance, repair and overhaul.
CATT is designed as an industrial campus and is co-located with its industry partner StandardAero. This type of partnership is a first in Manitoba.
Students train in a high-tech industrial setting which teaches technology processes and also conducts pre-commercial research for companies as part of an apprentice program.
CATT was the first centre to make these technologies available to industry in Canada.
Local access has enabled companies to train existing staff and to develop more highly qualified professionals in the province.
The College incorporates the technology and training at CATT into the curriculum for the Mechanical Engineering Technology and the Manufacturing Technical programs at the College.
I haven’t had the time to mention them all but there are other wonderful examples.
One is SPL Beatty, a York-based consulting firm, and Seneca College’s Centre for the Built Environment, partnering together to research the use of Aerobic Bioreactors in landfills.
Post-Secondary Education
What is apparent, and we have known this for some time, is that post-secondary education (PSE) has grown exponentially in importance. Thirty or forty years ago, it may have been an asset; today it is a must.
In your Pre-Budget Consultation submission to the Standing Committee on Finance it is suggested that 70 percent of new jobs in 2011 will require post-secondary education. The figure is expected to rise to close to 75 percent by 2020.
I don’t think that it is an exaggeration to say that those without post-secondary education will likely face a lifelong struggle for stable and gainful employment.
And if Canada is to remain competitive it needs individuals with better literacy and essential skills. It is critical that the number of Canadians with a post-secondary education increase substantially.
Looking at the competition and the direction the emerging economies are pursuing, it is clear that we need to expand our talent pool.
Within this expanded pool of Canadians with PSE, we also need diversity. We must build a labour force with linguistic and cultural diversity as well as a diversity of backgrounds.
We need tradespeople, machinists and skilled craftsmen alongside civil and mechanical engineers, teachers, social workers, scientists and physicians.
We are seeing the results of the existing imbalance/disconnect vis-à-vis supply and demand in the labour and job markets, essentially jobs without people and people without jobs. Waterloo is such a microcosm.
Without “all hands on deck” our economy will not be able to fire on all four cylinders and will we be hampered in sustained growth and productivity.
Why We Need more PSE – Everyday Examples
There was a time when many within our population could pop the hood of their car and find their carburetor.
People would often tinker around and fix their own cars. At the very least they felt that they could speak intelligently on the subject.
When you pop the hood of your car now, you quickly realize that you don’t speak its language.
They put micro-processers in the airbag modules in our cars, computers control our anti-lock brakes, engine functions and the all-important instrument panel.
Mechanics today need to be very well versed in understanding all of these functions and have a very good sense of computers.
Whether we are talking about hybrid vehicles, electric cars, conventional models or the solar models of the future, this is the way it is and it isn’t going to get any easier.
It doesn’t end with cars. I nearly got a migraine headache programming my universal remote control a few months ago.
Our high-definition and 3D televisions are pretty complicated too.
I can attest that it can take a few hours to calibrate the brightness, contrast, color and tint settings. Best Buy and Future Shop actually provide a service, accompanied by a hefty fee, to come to your home and do this.
It’s not about plugging the unit into your wall and walking away anymore.
Our Technology Challenge
We began our shift toward knowledge workers as the key drivers of economic growth and innovation some time ago.
And the third challenge we face collectively is transforming the way we conduct business.
Workplace renewal encompasses everything from upgrading our aging IT systems, to the structure and layout of our buildings and offices, and the way we print our documents.
This is about more than the way we operate or the systems we use.
It is also about being open minded, adaptable and moving to embrace new systems more quickly.
The City of Ottawa has been getting rid of its parking meters, moving instead to automated booths. These booths take cash or credit cards and sell tickets for any parking stall on the street.
From the city’s point of view, this might be a welcome change and will hopefully be more cost effective.
Yet while I watch this conversion, I find myself wondering about mobile, or cell phone, payment systems.
I am thinking of how the Japanese, the British, the South Africans and the Kenyans are using their cell phones to pay for parking, transfer funds and buy groceries.
In many countries in Africa, the mobile phone stands poised to replace the credit card.
It has empowered legions of small and new entrepreneurs.
Canada doesn’t lack innovative or creative thinkers and I would be happy to see us adopt more of their ideas.
Our challenge is two-fold. We must produce dramatically more knowledge workers and a vast labour pool brimming with Canadians with PSE while simultaneously creating the jobs they will want to fill and retain.
I raise this once again to reiterate the incredible competition for high quality personnel that we are facing.
We will achieve this balance only through inclusivity.
Whether talking about new graduates, mid-career professionals or seasoned subject matter experts…..
Or speaking of Canadian-born, new Canadians or our vastly under-represented aboriginal and disabled populations…..
We will be more successful in maximizing their contribution by modernizing the workplace.
Conclusion
I am optimistic about the future and believe that the plans we are formulating and implementing today will position us well in the future.
I believe that federal, provincial and territorial cooperation in concert with learning institutions is central to our strategy to diversify our labour pool and make training accessible to Canadians who seek it.
I recognize that we can strengthen and enhance the systemic linkages between Canada’s community colleges and the federal government.
This is a point I make whenever I have the opportunity.
Although it may need to be custom tailored, I think that the model and infrastructure we have established with the universities will work well for our relationship with community colleges.
I will do what I can to help include more community college representation on federal committees, working groups and panels to ensure that this dialogue remains open and free flowing.
I am pleased that you are engaged and have made your views known by participating in the pre-Budget 2010 consultation process.
I thank you for your contribution and keeping this dialogue going.
Thank you for your time tonight.