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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - JUNE 2012
I
N THE CANADI AN
Chamber of
Commerce Top-10 Barriers to
Competitiveness document, resolving
Canada’s skills crisis came in at the
number one issue for the Chamber to
tackle in 2012: “Despite current unem-
ployment levels, Canada has a grow-
ing labour shortage. More people with
the right skills are needed for Canada
to compete and prosper in a global,
knowledge-based economy. Develop-
ing domestic skills and improving
access to foreign workers are vital to
the continued success of Canadian
businesses and our economy.” CIO sat
down with the Honourable Perrin Be-
atty, President and CEO of the Cham-
ber, to discuss the problem.
CIO:
Why is skills the number
one issue for the Chamber?
Perrin Beatty:
It’s demographics.
Our population is aging, and for many
of our companies they’re seeing a third
or more of their workforce going out
the door in the next five years. That
means we have a skills problem that’s
well on its way to becoming a skills
crisis.
CIO:
What do you think is the
role of succession planning when con-
sidering this skills issue?
PB:
It’s critical. The place where
it’s most difficult is for SMEs. Many
SMEs don’t have a succession plan in
place, but their founders are getting
older and it’s not necessarily the case
that somebody in the family wants to
or can take over the business. So suc-
cession planning is very important.
But there are many facets of the skills
problem: succession planning, invest-
ments in recruitment, upgrading skills
of our current workers, the need
to look at immigration—and
weed to do a much better job of
projecting what skills needs are
going to exist down the road so
that the education system can
plan. We need to bring in mem-
The Honourable Perrin Beatty, President and
CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce
“We need to see more co-
op programs, internships,
apprenticeships.”