• Ensure that legislation and regulations affecting labour and employment practices provide manufacturers with the flexibility to reorganize their workplace, manage change in a cost-effective way, and protect the health and safety of workers;
• Ensure that workplace safety insurance systems are run on Lean principles, with minimal administrative and compliance costs, and structured on a basis that rewards a record of workplace safety; and
• Ensure that legislation and regulations affecting labour and employment practices provide workers with the incentive and opportunities to find employment locally or anywhere else in Canada.

The Federal government must:

• Restructure its Employment Insurance program to lower tax rates, bringing them in line with what would be required only for the sustainable funding of the program;
• Provide enhanced incentives for employees to upgrade their skill sets and complete apprenticeship programs;
• Strengthen the ability of sector councils to identify future skills requirements across all sectors of Canadian manufacturing, and particularly at the local community level;
• Facilitate a greater degree of collaboration and networking among manufacturers, schools, colleges, universities, training programs at the local level;
• Assist in the development of a national communication network among manufacturers, schools, colleges, universities, and training programs that would enable a better match between education and skills training on one hand and job opportunities on the other;
• Facilitate greater collaboration between industry and aboriginal and immigrant skills training programs;
• Develop a strategy for using Canada’s immigration system as a tool to promote Canada’s prosperity, actively recruiting the best and most ambitious people in the world to join us in building a better future; and,
• Ensure that legislation and regulations affecting labour and employment practices provide manufacturers with the flexibility to reorganize their workplace, manage change in a cost-effective way, and protect the health and safety of workers.

Taking Action

Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters will build on the results of Manufacturing 20/20 to translate the recommendations of manufacturers and stakeholders into action.

CME will take a proactive role by bringing the right people to the table who can respond effectively, at a local, provincial, or national level, to the issues raised by manufacturers across the country. And, CME will measure progress on an annual basis against the benchmarks of success identified in this report.