Panel explores labour challenges
May 25, 2006
By Murray Lyons, Business Editor
StarPhoenix, C6
March 25, 2006
(Saskatoon, SK) - Facing up to the province’s present and future labour market challenges was the subject Wednesday of a day-long working session for members of the Saskatchewan Task Force of the Workplace Partners Panel.
The panel is an independent national initiative, funded by the federal government, that will turn over its policy directions to both the provincial and federal government, says Saskatchewan co-chair Holly Hetherington of Regina, president of Executive Source Consulting Group.
She and panel co-chair Saskatchewan Federation of Labour president Larry Hubich are also co-chairs of the Saskatchewan Labour Force Development board.
Hetherington says the provincial board’s existence is one reason the national Workplace Partners Panel choose to start its work in Saskatchewan.
As well, the province’s unique demographics played a role in setting up a panel here.
"It’s the expectation that we will present some very unique solutions as regards to the aboriginal youth work force of the future that won’t be the case in other provinces," she said.
Shirley Seward of Ottawa, CEO of the Canadian Labour and Business Centre which has the contract to co-ordinate the national Workplace Partners effort, says a recent report by the Canadian Council on Learning found that Saskatchewan scores highest in Canada for the desire of people to stay here, work and raise their families.
"I think there is a lot of potential, from a pan-Canadian point of view, for people to stay and to return because of the other things, besides money, that enlightened employers can provide (such as) family life balance," Seward said.
Hubich says there is too much media negativity in Saskatchewan focused on outmigration of youth and he says the fact business and labour can set aside their differences is positive.
"This goes beyond partisan politics to dealing with issues that are important for the economic survival of the province and the country, and how we deal with workers of the future, so they can get into meaningful employment and get into jobs that they can actually raise a family on," he said.
Hetherington says the province may be losing some young people who want immediate high wages next door, but it has the potential to get many of them back.
"I’m a head hunter by trade," she said. "We might see the 18- and 19-year-olds leaving, but we see a lot more of the 30- and 40-year-olds repatriating with their families."
Seward says the de-emphasis on trades or apprenticeship training in schools is not unique to Saskatchewan and young people aren’t given full understanding of what they might do in this area.
"They think really the only route to go is university and, of course, there are a lot of other options that are available to young people today," she said. "We have an ingrained bias against trades in Canada."
Seward says children can be alerted to these opportunities without the need to think that they must be put into one stream of learning early on.
"I think the reality is that people today can’t expect to only stay in one career all their life," she said. "They move around a great deal and that’s why this task force is putting a lot of focus on the education you get in the school system, but life-long learning after that."
One of the tools being made available to the Saskatchewan task force from the national funding is a new snapshot of the province’s demographics done by Doug Elliott of Sask Trends Monitor.
The 68-page report notes that an area where Saskatchewan is making improvement is education levels among adults 25 to 54 years of age, which constitutes the primary labour force age group. The percentage that has their Grade 12 has grown to nearly 90 per cent by 2005 from 75 per cent in 1990 .
In that same age cohort, the number of post-secondary graduates has grown from 42 per cent to 58 per cent. Nevertheless, Saskatchewan still has the third lowest proportion of adults in that age group with post-secondary, ahead of only Manitoba and New Brunswick.