In Stratford, Ontario, the Ontario government is funding a project that could become a blueprint to alleviate homelessness nationwide – and by extension its impact on our health-care systems. We believe that replicating this approach across Canada will unquestionably result in cost savings and efficiencies in our health-care systems.

Caring for homeless patients at hospitals takes twice as long and more than double the cost of those who have a home to return to. Numbers from the Canadian Mental Health Association tell us that every $10 allocated towards supportive housing on average saves $21.72 across the health, social services and justice systems. Supportive housing, on average, costs $613 per month. In comparison, the monthly cost for someone in a shelter bed, correctional bed and hospital bed are $2,100, $4,300, and $13,500, respectively.

Some hospitals are now looking to integrate housing into their care models. Research from the Canadian Medical Association Journal that has shown the promising potential of hospitals leading in this space, but there will be a significant need for partnerships between the private and public sectors for this to be successful. After all, it is simply not feasible to expect already under-resourced institutions to take on the task of building and managing supportive housing alone.

Canadians are spending upwards of 22 hours in emergency rooms, hospital staff are overworked and carrying the added burden of 6.5 million Canadians who do not have a family doctor. And hospitals are still chipping away at the pandemic backlog of priority procedures, like cancer treatment and surgery. To keep the system from collapsing during the housing crisis, we need more private entities to step-up and lend a hand to non-profit organizations that are focused on serving people who are, or at risk of being, homeless. We must encourage partnerships between public and private sectors and show how tangible change is possible.

Our collaboration underway in Stratford will serve as a model for exactly that sort of partnership. The new housing units we build will be a safe space for those experiencing homelessness to live while accessing programs, navigating court systems, securing food assistance, and attending counselling and therapeutic support groups.

But it’s not just the housing making the difference, it’s also how we are building it. The modular housing project in Stratford, supported by Ontario’s Skills Development Fund, is working with and training historically underrepresented groups: new Canadians, Indigenous populations, youth and women. In some cases, the people receiving the training are at-risk populations that may have otherwise ended up needing this type of housing. Their futures are being recast because of the new skills and work experience they are acquiring. The aim is to empower and expand the economic opportunities available to these groups in the job market and reduce barriers to entry in the skilled labour workforce.

Supportive housing, while simple in principle, is an evidence-based, life-saving solution for residents, and a smart investment in Canada’s economic future. We can achieve necessary change with partnerships that support skills training and homebuilding, one home at a time.

— Todd Clyde is the CEO of Blue Branch, a social enterprise that leverages labour mobility, and Matt Lubberts is the CEO of NOW Housing, a company specialized in affordable, modular housing.

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Housing. Critical minerals development. Historic investments into infrastructure. These headline-catching spending commitments are exciting, but the most important Budget Day words from Ontario’s Minister of Finance, Peter Bethlenfalvy, was a question: “Who is actually going to build all of this stuff?”

The province’s budget, which many expect will be the platform on which the Ford government seeks re-election in June, correctly identifies the single biggest obstacle to getting anything done. Our desperate need for skilled workers. Lots of them.

In 2019, Ontario’s mining operations employed more than 48,600 people full-time directly, indirectly and through induced channels. This is projected to grow to approximately 52,000 jobs by 2025. But for the past three years, Ontario’s mining industry hasn’t been able to fill jobs, with more than two-thirds of mining companies reporting significant difficulty hiring skilled labour.

Both last month’s federal budget and last week’s provincial budget made exploring and developing critical minerals a major priority. But the mining industry is competing with Ontario’s manufacturing and construction industries for skilled labourers. And both those sectors aren’t getting the workers they need either. In Q4 of 2021, more than 348,000 Ontario jobs remained vacant, according to Statistics Canada. More than 20,000 were in construction and more than 30,000 in manufacturing.

Similarly, the federal budget called for major new investments into housing, recognizing the crisis Canada has with increasingly unaffordable homes. Ontario has also recognized the need to build more homes, more than 1.5 million of them over the next ten years, and paired that in the budget with historic investments into infrastructure like highways and transit networks. These investments are the right thing for governments to be spending tax dollars on, but without the local workforce, we need to get more creative.

By 2025, Ontario estimates that the number of vacant jobs just in the skilled trades will reach 350,000. That’s about one in five jobs in Ontario. How are we going to train up a workforce the size of the entire city of Markham in three years? Ontario is on the right track with its launch of Skilled Trades Ontario; investments into breaking the stigma against skilled trades to attract young people; and removing the significant licensing barriers faced by internationally trained immigrants. But Ontario has also been taking action to make it easier for Canadians trained in other provinces to come work here. And that’s where we come in.

The reality is, Canada has a lot of the skilled workers trained up and ready to meet the growing demands, they just aren’t in the right places. In 2019, more than 12,000 skilled workers lost their jobs in Alberta, but these workers were not connected to work opportunities in Ontario that matched their unique abilities.

This kind of labour mobility — or super-commuting as some are now calling it — is nothing new. For years, thousands of workers from Canada’s Atlantic provinces, where unemployment was high, flew to northern Alberta to work in the oil sands. Recently Canada’s labour demand has shifted to Ontario’s manufacturing, construction and mining sectors. And while super-commuting may not be for everyone, our research shows that as many as 32% of unemployed Canadians are willing to super-commute or move to another province for work.

Ultimately, to get people to super commute, the conditions must be right. They need housing and transportation, and to be able to see themselves as part of the community they are super-commuting to. The government can and should do more to incentivize Canadians to move within the country to fill labour shortages. In the meantime, organizations like Blue Branch are filling in the gaps, helping to match skilled workers to jobs where labour shortages prevent growth.

As the government lines up historic investments into housing, infrastructure and natural resource development in Ontario, now is the time for innovative labour mobility solutions that match workers from Canadian regions experiencing high unemployment and underemployment to jobs in the areas with labour shortages. This is how we can keep our talent and their positive economic impact inside Canada while growing stronger communities.

The post CLYDE: Now is the time for innovative labour mobility solutions appeared first on Blue Branch.

The stars are finally aligning for the Ring of Fire to be developed. But one thing is still missing: labour.

Announced at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention in June 2022, the U.S., Canada, the European Commission, and several other allies have established the Minerals Security Partnership to secure the supply of critical minerals needed to fuel the transition to net zero. Many of those minerals are found in the Ring of Fire.

The impetus for this international coordination may well have been Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the wide-reaching economic effects of sanctions against Russia, including shortages in the supply of natural gas to Europe. Governments around the world are waking up to the need to secure critical minerals from reliable, allied nations like Canada or risk Russia hoarding them next.

With pressure mounting on Canada to begin mining critical minerals in the Ring of Fire, it was a welcome move by Premier Doug Ford to not only make mining a standalone ministry, but to appoint a veteran of the industry to the helm. Mines Minister George Pirie successfully ran a Canadian mining company for many years with over a dozen operating mines across several countries. The former mayor of Timmins also has a special mandate to get the Ring of Fire developed. To do that, he won’t just need to get moving on road construction, he’s going to need innovative solutions for Ontario’s major shortage in skilled labourers.

In 2019, Ontario’s mining operations employed over 48,600 people full-time directly, indirectly, and through induced channels. This is projected to grow to approximately 52,000 jobs by 2025. But for the past three years, Ontario’s mining industry hasn’t been able to fill jobs, with more than two-thirds of mining companies reporting significant difficulty hiring skilled labour.

The mining industry is competing with Ontario’s manufacturing and construction industries for skilled labourers. And both those sectors aren’t getting the workers they need either. In Q4 of 2021, over 348,000 Ontario jobs remained vacant according to Statistics Canada. More than 20,000 were in construction and more than 30,000 in manufacturing.

The reality is, Canada has a lot of the skilled workers trained up and ready to meet the growing demands, they just aren’t in the right places. In 2019, more than 12,000 skilled workers lost their jobs in Alberta, but these workers were not connected to work opportunities in Ontario that matched their unique abilities. To build the Ring of Fire, we are going to need all those hands on-deck.

This kind of labour mobility – or super-commuting – is nothing new. Canada’s mining industry, in particular, is very familiar with the process of bringing in skilled labourers from another region for several weeks at a time on rotation. Super-commuting may not be for everyone, but our research shows that as many as 32 per cent of unemployed Canadians are willing to super-commute or move to another province for work.

Ultimately, to get people to super commute, the conditions must be right. They need housing and transportation, and to be able to see themselves as part of the community. To get the Ring of Fire built, we need to do more to incentivize Canadians to move within the country to fill labour shortages. In the meantime, organizations like Blue Branch are filling in the gaps, helping to match skilled workers to jobs where labour shortages prevent growth.

The federal government recently opened the consultation period on Canada’s critical minerals discussion paper, with the final strategy to be published in Fall 2022. Their critical minerals strategy also featured prominently in this year’s budget. The federal government also recognized the need to move skilled trades across regions, introducing a new labour mobility deduction for tradespersons and apprentices up to $4,000 a year in eligible travel and temporary relocation expenses.

As governments make historic investments into critical mineral development in Ontario, now is the time for innovative labour mobility solutions that match workers from Canadian regions experiencing high unemployment and underemployment to jobs in the areas with labour shortages.

The stars are aligning to get the Ring of Fire built. Now we just need the builders.

The post Opinion: Ring of Fire on the horizon, but labour is needed appeared first on Blue Branch.

These are smart tools for attracting and retaining nurses when we urgently need them, but we also need a strategy to bring back nurses who have left the field. Across the country, burnout and retirement have resulted in experienced nurses walking out of hospitals and never looking back. While many provinces are working hard to find new nurses to replace them, there is something we can be doing right now to get nurses to come back.

Nova Scotia has been investing in ‘travel nurses.’ These are private-contract nurses, sometimes referred to as ‘agency’ nurses, who are being offered higher wages and, perhaps more importantly, greater flexibility in scheduling. These nurses are flown into communities for short- or long-term contracts in public hospitals and long-term care homes. It is a very attractive model for experienced nurses who want to work and help people, but who also value the sanctity of their set days off. The very nature of contract super commuting means you can’t be called in during your vacation. For travel nurses, off means off.

While some nurses’ unions have expressed concern about this model, we have supported super commuting in unionized environments in other sectors for years, including in the oil and gas industry on critical projects that needed to scale up quickly. In addition to helping hospitals scale up quickly, this model can be used to keep highly skilled and experienced nurses from quitting the field or retiring early. It can help respond to the urgent demand we are seeing across Canada. And, if done properly, it can attract experienced nurses who have already left to come back to the field.

So, what does “doing it properly” entail? It can be difficult for anyone to come into a new community for work with limited support. But this model of super commuting has been used in the oil and gas and mining industries for decades, and we have learned a lot of lessons and developed best practices. The first lesson is we need to secure good housing for workers travelling into a community. Next, we need to provide travel, not just to the community, but within it by taking the guess work out of navigating a new community that may not have reliable transit. Then connect with them local supports to help them feel like they belong.

The nurses’ unions aren’t wrong when they refer to travel nurses as a bandage solution. But the good news about our model of super commuting is that it is more likely to result in workers choosing to settle down in their new community permanently.

As governments across the country grapple with supporting the health-care system, now is the time for innovative labour mobility solutions that match nurses willing to super commute with communities in need of their skills.

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