Senator Diane Bellemare: Four Reasons to Support Community Benefits in Canada

On May 7, 2019 Senator Diane Bellemare spoke in support of Bill C-344 in the Senate. In doing so, Senator Bellemare offered four great reasons why she feels Canada would benefit if community benefits principles were introduced to federal procurement. They include addressing labour shortages in regions across the country, complimenting the important work underway in Quebec to proliferate social enterprises, incentivizing social good initiatives among small and medium-sized businesses, and making sure every dollar spent by the federal government on procurement makes as much of an impact on Canadians as possible.

Watch highlights from this speech below or read the full transcript below. 

Hon. Diane Bellemare (Legislative Deputy to the Government Representative in the Senate): Honourable senators, I rise today to support Bill C-344, which proposes to enter into agreements for community benefits. The bill would give the minister the authority to require a bidder selected for a federal construction, maintenance or repair project to provide information about the benefits that could be derived from the work. My colleagues spoke at length about how this community benefits program could boost employment and regional development. The Honourable Senator Dean’s remarks were based on his own experience. My comments will be based on what I have heard and also on my experience in various past roles in the Quebec government pertaining to labour market development. I will give four reasons why I believe that we should quickly adopt this bill at second reading in order to study it in detail.

First, I want to say that I support this bill, because this kind of program is an important part of an active labour market policy. All provinces have workforce, training, skills development and employability strategies. However, employability strategies are not enough. People who use public employment services must be able to gain work experience and put their skills to use. Many senators have shared examples of countries that adopted community benefit programs for certain government contracts that had a positive effect on various categories of workers, including Indigenous peoples, immigrants and young people. The community benefits helped all categories of what we call “vulnerable workers.” This is a very important reason to support this bill. This new tool could be used in labour market policy to provide experience and training at a time when all companies are reporting a skills shortage. They are reporting a skills shortage and also asking to bring in foreign workers. Several worker categories in Canada are experiencing particular problems

Community benefit agreements provide employability services and access to an open and concrete labour market.

The second reason I support this bill’s underlying principle has to do with Quebec. Since the early 1990s, Quebec’s social economy enterprises have been grouped within a rapidly growing sector that we call the Chantier de l’Économie sociale. By the numbers, Quebec’s Chantier de l’Économie sociale is made up of 150,000 employees working for 7,000 businesses, including 3,300 cooperatives and 3,700 non-profit organizations involved in market activities.

That is how the Government of Quebec’s action plan to grow the social economy, which was introduced in 2015 and covers the period from 2015 to 2020, defines social economy enterprises, also known as collectively owned enterprises. These enterprises produce and sell various types of goods and services while meeting social needs, such as fostering social and occupational integration, creating jobs, sustaining local services, and preserving local and cultural vitality. Market activities are not an end in themselves; they are a means of achieving these organizations’ social missions.

All of these social economy enterprises, which are grouped together in certain sectors in Quebec, are important. In its action plan, the government wants to do more to ensure their development, consolidate them and diversify their areas of activity. It wants to promote government contracts in maintenance services to better develop social economy enterprises.

This is a principle that could be used in a federal program in the context of developing social enterprises in Quebec.

The third reason I believe this bill should be referred to committee quickly is that it will enable all small, medium and large businesses that wish to improve their social record. More businesses are interested in this than you might think. In fact, making the assessment of social benefits mandatory can be a plus for many companies in some cases.

As you know, there is a lot of competition between companies, and if we don’t force them to do something, they often won’t do it. For instance, if the minimum wage were not set out by law, there would be a lot of wage competition, and employment conditions definitely would not be as good as they are now. Basically, by forcing companies to promote social benefits in their submissions, we are forcing them to act. Many companies will be happy to have the chance.

The fourth and final reason I support this bill is that these agreements on community benefits will enhance the multiplier effects of federal investment projects on local and regional economies, which will contribute to a better distribution of prosperity.

By requiring companies to promote community benefits, we ensure that the economic spinoffs happen in the places or regions where these contracts are awarded. This will help us achieve certain regional development objectives, because we know that economic development in Canada is not balanced. Not all the provinces enjoy the same level of economic development. Not every region develops at the same speed.

For these four reasons, dear colleagues, I believe that we should send this bill to committee as soon as possible to be studied in more detail.

In closing, I would remind you that this bill started as a private member’s bill sponsored by the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship, Ahmed Hussen. He introduced Bill C-227 in 2016. That bill was studied in committee at the other place and was subject to amendments. When he became minister, Bill C-227 was reintroduced by MP Ramesh Sangha as Bill C-344, incorporating the amendments that had been adopted in committee.

I see no reason why we should oppose this bill in principle, since it is constitutional. It complies with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and was passed in the other place after going through all the required steps. It offers a concrete way of promoting employment and local development by investing taxpayers’ money. In my opinion, it is a good way to make cost-effective public investments.

Thank you for your attention.

Learn more about community benefits on Senator Omidvar’s resource page for Bill C-344.