Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Federal Government

Labour Shortages Dept: In the last election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper signalled that labour shortages would emerge as a major issue in future. With unemployment at the time at nine per cent, his comments probably gave his campaign advisers heartache. But Harper was looking ahead in a way that most conventional politicians wouldn t have dared, according to The Chronicle Herald. The March 29 federal budget barely mentioned labour shortages, but that s understandable, given Canada s disparate labour situation. In a budget firmly focused on growth, the government had to do what it could to help solve short-term acute labour shortages in the fast-growing West without drawing attention to continued levels of high unemployment in the East and at a time of continued concern about the federal deficit, it may seem strange to suggest that the way to deal with rising retirement costs and looming labour shortages in Canada is for the federal government to collect less tax from workers. But unless we undertake a major overhaul of Canada s progressive income tax system to bring tax policy more in line with public policy, a growing number of older Canadians are going to leave the workforce, taking their skills with them and reducing their ability to save for a more secure retirement in their later years. Indeed, a report issued by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in February predicts that, over the next decade, there will be job shortfalls of 163,000 in construction, 130,000 in oil and gas, 60,000 in nursing, 37,000 in trucking, 22,000 in the hotel industry and 10,000 in the steel trades. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.