Former municipal councillor for Sainte-Rose, responsible for issues related to the environment and urban planning during the two terms of Demers’s administration, Dufour will also act as spokesperson for Laval’s region for Quebec’s Liberal Party (QLP).

During the last campaign, in the wake of the saga surrounding the Cité du Cinéma, Dufour had also pledged, should she win her place at the National Assembly, to do everything possible to amend the Act respecting elections and Referendums in Municipalities, especially Articles 546 and 553, in relation to the procedure for registering qualified voters.

Sona Lakhoyan Olivier

In addition, Sona Lakhoyan Olivier, deputy for Chomedey, was given, by the leader of the official opposition, Dominique Anglade, the function of Liberal spokesperson for the regions of Laurentides and Lanaudière, as well as for the tourism industry.

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L’article Virginie Dufour, Municipal Affairs Watchdog est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.

“We knew the labour shortage had a very negative impact on leaders of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),” said by press release François Vincent, vice-president for Quebec at the CFIB. “They have to work more hours, and their employees as well. They’re forced to refuse contracts and business opportunities.”

Vincent adds that those SMEs could have benefited from these sums to recover, grow and revitalize their regions. For him, the labour shortage issue is very bad news for SME leaders.

CFIB’s assessment is based on data from a survey conducted last March. The results relating to the losses suffered by SMEs were calculated using the average total income of a Quebec SME, published by Statistics Canada for the year 2020, by sector of activity. Let’s note that the analysis only takes into account SMEs with revenues between $30,000 and $5 million, in order to have a conservative assessment.

All Sectors

In a report published last April, the CFIB revealed how the labour shortage was affecting all industries, and leading to an explosion of job vacancies, thus putting a lot of pressure on SMEs.

Today’s research note also highlights the economic impacts by activity sector.

The construction and professional and administrative services sectors are registering losses of more than $2 billion. SMEs in the lodging/food and retail sectors are experiencing losses of nearly a billion. In the wholesale trade and transportation sectors, these losses total $1.2 billion.

Measures

The lack of employees is cited by 86 per cent of small business owners in Quebec as the most difficult issue to overcome in 2022, just behind the increase in costs, mentioned by 87 per cent of them.

“The Government of Quebec has adopted several measures to support companies seeking employees, and has just made changes so that all SMEs have access to tax credits to attract workers,” explained Vincent in the press release. “That said, more actions are possible and necessary to help those businesses, especially in terms of taxation, where Quebec is the country’s champion.” (A.B.)

L’article Nearly $11 Billion Lost Due to Labour Shortage est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.

Compared to the first quarter last year, housing starts have more than tripled, going from 241 to 814.

That’s what comes out from the data compiled by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The rental market takes the biggest part, with 80 per cent of houses under construction, which is 668 new homes. The percentage rises to 96 per cent when we’re adding the condominium’s niche and its 114 units under construction. That leaves us with two market segments, which are single-family residences (21) and semi-detached and row houses (11).

Clear Domination

While the market was getting hot in Laval, Montreal’s census metropolitan area (CMA) saw its housing starts drop by 37 per cent.

On March 31, we could count 5,057 housing units under construction, a shortfall of more than 3,000 units compared to the same period last year. Had it not been for Laval’s performance, the decline observed in Montreal’s CMA would be around 50 per cent.

Laval has quintupled its weight in the metropolitan balance for this first quarter. In 2021, the city-region had seen 241 new housing units, counting for three per cent of the 8,080 units started on the whole territory of the CMA, while this time its 814 houses are counting for 16 per cent of the 5,057 housing starts identified by the CMHC.

Last December 31, Laval concluded the year with 2,270 new constructions, which represented a 20 per cent drop compared to its activity level of 2020.

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L’article Housing Starts are Exploding in Laval est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.

Last winter, those manufacturers, members of the Prox-industriel community of interest, were gathering together to create a Web platform intended for job seekers.

“It’s a promising project for manufacturers working together in the search for concrete solutions to meet the challenges of labour shortages, and it’s a facilitating platform for job seekers as well,” said on its launch on February 2, Marie-Christine Piedboeuf, Prox-industriel’s president of the board of directors and business process expert at Pelican International.

Non-Specialized Jobs

An application submitted on the www.metiersindustrielslaval.ca website is automatically reported to the 17 partner companies.

However, before submitting it, the applicant is invited to first select at least one of the four proposed job categories (production, maintenance, warehouse and transport), which detail the types of non-specialized jobs available, and then tick the desired work shift(s).

100 CVs for a Hiring

This pilot project has emerged from discussions from the very active HR (human resources) self-help group within Prox-industrel, of which Rose-Marie Di Rosa, president of Comptoirs Lamnex, is a member.

“We’re having a lot, but a lot of trouble to recruit,” she explained in an interview with the Courrier Laval. “We’re doing business with agencies that aren’t necessarily able to bring us people.”

Already in 2019, a scarcity of labour weighed on the industry, as 1,450 vacancies had been registered within some 260 manufacturers in Laval’s region.

The pandemic has exacerbated the problem. “Today, in order to recruit someone, we need to receive 100 CVs (curriculum vitae),” Di Rosa said.

Promote Jobs

HR Vice-President of the Geloso Group, producer and distributor of alcoholic products which employs some 400 workers, Nancy Salloum can also testify on that difficulty in recruiting, having to deal with a 10 per cent vacancy rate.

For her, that initiative led by Prox-industriel serves above all to promote industrial jobs. “The main goal is to promote non-specialized jobs,” Salloum said, who is also part of the HR committee of that community of interest.

In fact, the digital platform is based on a promotional campaign shared on social networks, including Facebook, where workers testify to the passion they have for their job.

Shared Workforce

In order to help staff retention, Prox-industriel has developed an industrial workforce sharing project, underlines its President and CEO, Chantal Provost.

Fully funded by Services Québec, that collaborative measure ensures employees a continuous work throughout the year, and this, regardless of production lines that could be slowing down due to material supply delays, for example.

“It allows candidates to work for two companies if they want,” Provost said, while emphasizing the synergy generated by the network for the benefit of its members.

A spin-off of the Chambre de commerce et d’industrie de Laval (CCIL) created in 2018, Prox-Industriel brings together 125 of the some 900 manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers scattered throughout Laval territory.

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L’article Manufacturers Create a Web Platform to Facilitate Hiring est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.