‘More tradespeople, less red tape,’ Ontario Chamber president says

“I can’t get enough talent.”

That from Rocco Rossi, Toronto-based Ontario Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, when listing concerns Ontario business owners bring to him.

Rossi made the statement in a speech to Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce members at a Thursday luncheon held at The Marconi Club.

“They say ‘I’d be building my business (if they get the trained staff),’” Rossi said, adding individual chambers should join with the Ontario chamber, colleges and universities and social agencies to move forward in getting the 15 per cent of people who identify themselves as disabled into the workforce.

“We aren’t training the people,” Rossi said, strongly emphasizing the need to get more people into skilled trades training.

“We’ve told our children for too long ‘if you’re smart you go to university, if you’re not quite so smart you go to college and if you’re a dummy you take a trade.’ Absolute wrong headedness,” Rossi exclaimed, pointing to how highly esteemed tradespeople are in Germany and other European countries.

“We’ve got to take that stigma away,” Rossi said, stating the ratio of fully-trained journeymen over apprentices in-training needs to be reduced.

Rossi said there is also a need for immigrants in northern and rural communities because “we’re aging out. If we don’t get that growth, who’s going to pay our pensions, keep the lights on and produce the things that we want?”

Rossi said the Ontario chamber is also urging the provincial government to invest more in broadband technology and natural gas infrastructure for businesses in northern and rural areas.

Regulatory burdens are another issue the Ontario chamber is trying to reduce for the province’s businesses, Rossi said.

“The province of Ontario has almost 400,000 regulations,” Rossi said, compared to 200,000 in BC.

“We need to bring that number down, and the government is looking for recommendations,” Rossi dismissing concerns he sometimes hears which claim deregulation would lead to Walkerton-style tragedies.

“Please share these thoughts with your colleagues, your friends and business associates...the (chamber of commerce) network is very strong throughout Ontario and it’s always stronger working together,” said Rory Ring, Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce CEO, after Rossi’s speech.

“I don’t have a specific target (in terms of more tradespeople) but each of our member companies and the growth of our economy requires it. The average age of a tradesperson is over 60, and we’ve got tens of thousands of people to replace in the very near future,” Rossi told SooToday.

“We do have homegrown people (to fill that need),” Rossi said, adding immigration is also needed to address the gap retirements will create.

“We take the (Doug Ford provincial) government at its word that it actually wants to make Ontario open for business, so we are very encouraged. It doesn’t mean we’ll agree on everything, but we are encouraged. We’ve brought forward a number of ideas in our pre-budget submission and so far they’ve had a very open door policy in listening to our members concerns,” Rossi said.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce represents 135 chambers of commerce, representing over 60,000 businesses making up over 20 per cent of Ontario’s gross domestic product.