Brome-missisquoi MRC to investigate access to workforce

The Brome-missisquoi MRC and the CLD development department is launching a business workforce survey in order to get an up-to-date portrait of the situation and issues local employers face. The survey will serve to validate a series of measures that will allow the region to remain attractive and efficient. The attraction of young families and manpower is one of the strategic axes of the new, recently tabled MRC plan and the organization now wants to take action.

"With an unemployment rate hovering around 4.2 per cent across the Montérégie, regions need to differentiate themselves in order to attract the talent needed for current and future businesses," says Robert Desmarais, Director General of the MRC and the CLD of Brome-missisquoi.

Several of the measures proposed will be validated, including adapting the public transit service to better suit the needs of the regional workforce, developing a strategy to attract immigrants, developing an employer brand, and securing the sharing of seasonal winter and summer labor, among employers.

"A better understanding of the state of affairs among employers in the region is important, but a dialogue with local stakeholders is fundamental to the development of an action plan that will meet our common objectives," Desmarais says. “The MRC is committed to putting in place an effective platform that will enable economic development, education, and business, actors to exchange ideas and to agree on a common strategy for access to the workforce.

The company BIP Recherche has been mandated by the MRC to carry out the survey, which will be launched in the coming days. Companies in the industrial, agri-food, and tourism sectors will be particularly targeted, either by email or by telephone. Entrepreneurs in the region (including commercial and institutional) may also respond to the survey by visiting the MRC website at www.mrcbm.qc.ca.