Party suggests First Nations solution to labour woes
VAL- D’OR The Bolduc family didn’t want it to get to this point, but says it was left without a choice.
Owners of nine Subway restaurants in Quebec’s northern regions, they started closing their Val-d’Or location at night and early morning last month, struggling to find employees to fill the hours.
Then, after exhausting staff by asking them to pick up hours between their different restaurants, they decided something needed to give: they closed the Val-d’Or shop last Saturday.
Quebec’s labour shortage and competing with better-paying jobs in the mining industry, they say, was too much to overcome. They estimate the losses at $30,000 a month.
“Everyone knows it, but people don’t talk about it,” said Jonathan Bolduc, 40, the youngest of three brothers who run the franchises with a partner.
“If you look at the number of people available to work compared to the jobs offered, the equation isn’t good anymore. We’re lacking people.”
The labour shortage, and the strain it’s causing Quebec businesses like the Bolduc’s restaurants, was Quebec Liberal Party Leader Philippe Couillard’s main theme as he toured the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region on Tuesday and Wednesday.
But Couillard said he thinks a short-term solution could be waiting nearby: hiring young workers from surrounding First Nations communities.
“For First Nations youths, it’s obvious we need to get to know each other better, we need to talk about our cultures,” he said during one of several campaign stops in the area.
“There’s a nearby pool of a great number of young men and women who are interested in working and can contribute to the region’s economic development.”
Couillard brushed off questions by reporters about his idea oversimplifying a more complicated issue. The closest First Nations reserve to Val-d’Or, for instance, is Lac-Simon, more than 30 kilometres away. Is it really realistic for people to travel into the city to work at fast-food chains?
“I think it is,” Couillard said. The Liberal Leader also defended his record on Indigenous issues over the last four years.
“I’m very familiar, much more familiar than most candidates in this election, with their reality. We know what we’ve been doing together and know what the challenges are,” he said.
Asked why he didn’t visit LacSimon, or any Indigenous community, during this week’s trip to the region, he said: “I’ve been here before and visited the communities and spoke with them about the events leading to the Viens Commission.”
The Viens Commission is mandated to explore the treatment of Indigenous Peoples by the Quebec government. It was launched after explosive allegations in 2015 that Sûreté du Québec police in Vald’Or sexually abused Indigenous women.
Couillard stood by the commission’s work so far and recommitted to implementing its eventual recommendations.
Asked if he’s done enough as premier to improve the trust between Indigenous women and the provincial police force, Couillard said he’s comfortable with his record.
“I think there are significant checks and balances on the police force, to which we added in recent years,” he said.
“We can never do enough, there’s always more to do,” he added. “Obviously, we need to do better and that’s why this commission is so important.”
For Chief Lance Haymond of the Kebaowek First Nation, Couillard’s proposal to have First Nations youth fill the labour shortage was welcomed. Haymond travelled more than two hours to hear Couillard speak in Rouyn-Noranda on Wednesday.
Though Haymond said there are “many hurdles” to overcome — language barriers and the distance between several communities and urban centres, for example — he thinks it’s a realistic idea.
“It’s going to be a lot of work but I think the time, effort and energy put into it will pay dividends,” he said. “Not only to First Nations but to all Quebecers as well.”
Overall, he said, he’s encouraged to hear the idea being discussed in the middle of an election campaign.
“You can always say the government could have done more, but I think we need to seize on opportunities now,” he said. “Do I wish they would have acted on it sooner? Absolutely. But I’m the kind of person who looks forward.”
While in the region Wednesday, Couillard also visited a gold mine and ventilation company, driving home the idea that the province’s labour shortage is affecting all industries.
Each business he visited said it had few Indigenous employees at the moment.
The shortage, Couillard repeated, can only be fixed through “training, participation, automation and immigration.”
There’s a nearby pool of a great number of young men and women who are interested in working and can contribute to the region’s economic development.