Workforce talent recruitment and retention is one of the most urgent issues facing the Atlantic region. In the next decade, the Canadian economy is expected to offer significant opportunities for employment. Those opportunities reflect both Canada’s emergence as a knowledge economy and the impact of retirement from the workforce of the baby boomer generation. An expectation exists that future demand for a skilled labour force will be serviced, in part, by an increasing Indigenous workforce.
"Investing in disadvantaged young people is one of the rare public policies with no equity-efficiency tradeoff. Based on the methodology developed in Sharpe, Arsenault and Lapointe (2007), we estimate the effect of increasing the educational attainment level of Aboriginal Canadians on labour market outcome and output up to 2026. We build on these projection to estimate the potential effect of eliminating educational and social gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people on government spending and government revenues using population and economic projections to 2026."
"Using data from the 1996 Public Use Microdata File (PUMF) on individuals, this paper examines labour force activity of women in Canada, focussing on the effects of familial status and household structure to determine whether these factors have similar elasticities among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women. We found that labour force activity varied greatly by Aboriginal Status. In general, Registered Indians were less likely to be employed but more likely to be unemployed than Other Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals.
The purpose of this discussion paper has been to share why our region is uniquely positioned to serve as the Energy Hub for the International Northeast, with is diverse mix of energy related assets, while at the same time the papers key object is to build awareness that unless project proponents, governments and the community begin to take meaningful action now, the labour supply challenge is potentially a crisis “on our doorstep” that could detrimentally affect the major Energy Hub projects.
In the past two years, APEC has produced reports on the economic impact of the forest industries in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Firms in this industry, one of the most significant in the region, face an increasingly complex environment. This article highlights key findings of the two reports, with data updated to the most recent year and coverage extended, where possible, to the four Atlantic provinces. The value of forest-related activity in the Atlantic provinces in 1998 was over $1.3 billion.
The forest industry is a key component of New Brunswick’s economic base but its contribution is a risk due to limited fibre supply. This report provides a detailed assessment of the industry’s current economic impact and estimates the potential economic impact of proposals to increase the wood supply from Crown land.
One of the most pressing issues for the forest industry in Canada is the dwindling supply of labour, and in particular the lack of skilled workers. Until recently, a labour surplus ensured an adequate supply of new workers for resource based firms across Nova Scotia. However, a decline in the birth rate, competition from other industries, and out-migration to western Canada have all served to reduce the pool of available workers. The productivity and profitability of firms in the forest industry depends on the skills and capabilities of its workforce.
The forest labour force in New Brunswick has changed significantly over the last decade. Employment grew strongly in the late 1990’s led by growth in the wood products sector, but growth has stalled in recent years. The unemployment rate has declined but remains high. The potential local supply of labour for the forest industry is dwindling due to demographic factors such as slow population growth, an aging population and migration of young people to the cities.
Chapter 1 provides a profile of the industry and its importance to the economy of Atlantic Canada. In Chapter 2, the competitiveness challenges facing the industry are analyzed. Chapter 3 explores new directions for the industry while a final chapter summarizes the findings and highlights the key recommendations. Of particular interest to readers will be the views of those engaged in the forest industry in Atlantic Canada, gathered from six industry roundtables held across the Atlantic Provinces between April and June of 2007 as well as from individual interviews.
The report highlights the changing structure of the labour force over the past decade while profiling the labour force in more detail at the time of the 2001 Census. A brief analysis of what is driving demographic trends in the province and the implications for the forest industry is also included.
