(Quebec) The labor shortage has become the main economic problem in Quebec, a phenomenon that will only get worse and of which the Legault government does not seem aware, according to the former Minister of Finance , the liberal deputy Carlos Leitão.
Posted at 3:48 p.m.
Mr. Leitão claims a much more muscular and very short-term approach, a “detailed and coherent plan” of mitigation measures aimed at countering the effects of this scarcity, the impact of which on economic development can only be negative in the coming decade.
“We are heading towards an extremely problematic situation,” he predicted, in a telephone interview on Thursday, based in particular on the most recent Statistics Canada census data made public the day before. In Quebec, 20% of the population is now aged 65 and over.
Despite the evidence, the cries from the heart of the business community and the unemployment rate, which is at its lowest, he believes that Premier François Legault persists in talking about job creation. Until recently, “the government did not see it as something to worry about” the labor shortage, according to him.
He reminds us that nowadays the challenge is no longer to “create jobs”, but to find people to fill them.
First at a press briefing on Thursday morning, then during question period in the National Assembly, the MNA for Robert-Baldwin urged the government to double down on labor recruitment, by all possible means to prevent the crisis from spiraling out of control.
Mr. Leitão showed great concern for the future, given the age pyramid, which will ensure that a large number of Quebec workers between the ages of 55 and 65 are preparing to leave the labor market.
Too small, the cohort of young people who will enter the labor market will only be able to meet a fraction of future needs. Quebec predicts that by 2030, there will be up to 1.4 million vacancies to fill.
While he recognizes the efforts made by the Minister of Labour, Jean Boulet, who announced various programs in this area recently, he considers that we must “go much further than that and much faster than that”.
According to him, the government must have three priorities: the regions, women and immigration.
The economist and former banker is particularly worried about the regions, which risk devitalizing for lack of personnel to grow their local economy. This is the population decline that several medium-sized cities, including Trois-Rivières and Saguenay, will face, according to him.
By its flawed policy on childcare services, the government is also depriving itself of a valuable female workforce, according to him. He notes that thousands of women cannot return to the labor market because they have a baby at home and cannot find a place in daycare.
Quebec must make every effort to quickly create the maximum number of places in childcare services, he said. “We are facing an emergency and in an emergency, we have to find places quickly”, pleads the deputy, accusing the government of a “disconnection” on this subject.
In terms of immigration, he criticizes the government for relying on temporary workers, instead of encouraging newcomers to settle in Quebec for good. “It’s nonsense,” according to one who wants to see the government bet “massively” on permanent immigration, while raising immigration thresholds.
How do you think that a person who arrives here with a two-year residence permit, how he will integrate if he knows when he leaves that in two years, he will have to leave? So, if we want immigration and if we want integration, and we want integration, it’s not with temporary immigration that we’re going to get there.
Liberal MP Carlos Leitão
We must also find the formula that will encourage immigrants to settle more in the regions, he says, a widely shared objective that all governments have broken their teeth in the past.
Finally, Mr. Leitão maintains that the government must focus more on the tax incentives paid to experienced workers, to convince them to delay the retirement age. We need “more audacity, more vision,” he says, on the tax front, to obtain real results in this regard.