What businesses want from the Ontario budget
CBC
Businesses in Ontario hope Thursday's budget from Premier Doug Ford's government will offer some solutions to the labour force crunch they're facing.
Statistics Canada released its latest job vacancy figures Tuesday, showing 323,000 unfilled jobs in the province.
In advance of each budget, organizations that represent businesses submit their annual laundry lists of requests to the provincial government. What makes this year's requests different from the usual is the level of concern over finding workers.
The Ontario Chamber of Commerce says 87 per cent of large businesses in the province face labour shortages.
"There are very significant gaps that need to be addressed," said Claudia Dessanti, the chamber's senior director of policy.
About seven per cent of all jobs in the food services and accommodations sectors are unfilled, according to Statistics Canada data. The chamber of commerce says there are also "significant labour shortages" in the transportation, construction, child care, tourism, retail and health care sectors.
Dennis Darby, chief executive of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME), an industry lobby group, says the companies he represents are finding it hard to recruit workers.
"What we hear from manufacturers is finding people with the skills they need is their number one concern," said Darby in an interview.
On Tuesday, Ford revealed one of his government's budget plans for addressing the labour crunch: extra funding to build, upgrade and operate skilled trades training centres, which are typically run by unions, businesses and industry associations.
Asked what his government will do immediately to deal with worker shortages, Ford pointed to immigration.
"We've been on the federal government non-stop from the day we took office to bring more people in faster, cut through the red tape, get people their work permits, that they can come and start training and lay down their roots," said Ford during a news conference in Vaughan.
Labour Minister Monte McNaughton referenced the recent deal with Ottawa giving Ontario the power to select up to 18,000 immigrants per year to fill specific labour shortages, predominantly in health care and skilled trades.
McNaughton added the government also aims to boost the size of Ontario's labour pool by helping people move from social assistance to the workforce.
During the government's pre-budget consultations in January and February, a range of corporate lobby groups called for tackling the workforce issue:
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