Dealer associations are stepping up efforts to help dealers fill tech shortages
Technician shortages remain a reality and a looming threat to businesses in Canada, though efforts to fill these gaps have intensified since our last update in 2024.
Back then, Canadian auto dealer reached out to the Corporation des concessionnaires automobiles du Québec and learned the CCAQ had just launched their public campaign, ma carrière en concessionnaire.
QUEBEC
Building up technicians on the home front is not new to provincial dealer associations, but the CCAQ’s recent approach is notable. President and CEO, Ian P. Sam Yue Chi, described it as the “Tinder” of the automotive industry, since the campaign brings people to a website where a communication link is made between the dealer and applicant. A type of “blind date.”
“(We are) talking about people who haven’t necessarily thought about a career in the automotive industry, presenting them with the diversity of professions and careers that we have in (our) industry, and doing it in a positive way to interest them,” said Sam Yue Chi.
The campaign ran from June to the end of November 2024. It was a success, receiving 10,000 unsolicited applications from people who had never thought about working in the auto sector during that period. The CCAQ received a lot of feedback from members, too.
“It was a challenge to manage the traffic on the side of certain dealers, so they asked us to refine the strategy a little because the campaign, (which) was in all the Quebec media, brought people to a website that ultimately put the applicants in contact with employers.”
The CCAQ is currently in the process of beta testing the new version of the website with some dealers. The needs and profile of the applications submitted on the website will be more specified, and candidates will have the possibility of submitting their curriculum vitae too.
On the foreign workers front, the association was enjoying the progress made from their international recruitment agency that was launched under subsidiary Mobilö around eight years ago. But a lot can change in a few months.
“It’s been a strange year in terms of recruitment and workforce,” said Sam Yue Chi. “Since we last spoke a year ago (about Mobilö), we aimed to scale up the service to meet the needs of as many dealerships as possible in Quebec.”
The CCAQ sought out mostly Moroccan and Tunisian talent, but since our last discussion, Sam Yue Chi said the federal and provincial governments have adopted restrictive policies in terms of hiring temporary foreign workers and maintaining the foreign workforce.
“The (provincial) government raised the threshold for the high-wage job category to nearly $33 an hour, which means several occupations no longer fit into the high-wage employee program,” said Sam Yue Chi. “That complicates the hiring and job retention process.”
He also said the federal government imposed a mandatory maximum ceiling of 10 per cent of the workforce for temporary foreign workers at any worksite.
The impact of these changes has been felt on each of the organizations the CCAQ represents in certain regions of Quebec, particularly in Abitibi and the North Shore, where member dealerships have more than the maximum 10 per cent of foreign workers.
The new measures mean those dealerships will have to get rid of employees that exceed the government’s cap. These are workers who have travelled from far to begin a new life in Quebec, are already fully integrated, and have progressed in their francization. (Quebec has specific requirements for promoting and increasing the use of French as the language of work).
There is also a safety issue to consider. “Let’s not forget that we also repair heavy trucks, and that too is a need we have to be able to fill in the workforce, (in terms) of heavy truck mechanics. He said there are safety implications for the general public that both levels of government need to be aware of.
Sam Yue Chi said they know Quebec’s Immigration Minister, Jean-François Roberge, is advocating for the federal government to drop the 10 per cent cap so temporary foreign workers already in Canada can be granted permanent residency. “We are with Minister Roberge, putting pressure and influence on the federal government right now.”
ONTARIO
The situation is different in Ontario. Todd Bourgon, CEO, Executive Director, of the Motor Vehicle Retailers of Ontario (MVRO), said the federal cap doesn’t affect their efforts to bring in technicians from other countries.
“They have a couple of different battles in Quebec that we don’t have in Ontario, as far as providing information that demonstrates the need for the job,” said Bourgon, adding that Quebec also has a language test that does not impact other provinces.
He said the MVRO has been successful in lobbying the need for skilled workers and providing dealers with data. For every bay that’s not active, because the dealer doesn’t have a technician working in it, Bourgon said it costs them anywhere from $600,000 to $750,000 just in parts and labour, in terms of unrealized revenue.
He also highlighted that there is a national shortfall of thousands of people that could be placed. Of that, Bougon said the association has placed “probably just over 300.”
He’s heading back to the Philippines in September as part of the MVRO’s international recruitment initiative. But the process is much smoother now, and they don’t have to travel as often. “It’s a more manageable demand and a more manageable supply.”
Brent Ravelle, President of the MVRO and the Ravelle Group of Companies, whom Canadian auto dealer interviewed in 2024, said he was one of the first dealers to have workers from the program in his dealership.
Back then, he said the process took about a year or more. Now, it only takes a few months, starting from the time a dealer member reaches out to the MVRO and Bourgon goes to find a technician.
“Then the whole feasibility starts with respect to getting them through all of their government access to get them here as foreign workers. And that can take three, four months on the short side. And on the long side, it usually just depends on where the worker is at the time. So the timing’s been cut way down.”
Ravelle has four workers from abroad. Two were Red Seal certified about a year ago, and two are in the apprenticeship program and will be writing for their technician license soon. One will be a permanent resident by the fall and has settled his whole family here.
BRITISH COLUMBIA
The New Car Dealers Association of BC recently joined colleagues from the MVRO on an overseas trip to better understand their foreign recruiting effort. Blair Qualey, President and CEO of the NCDA, said the Ontario dealers have been doing a “tremendous job” for a while now in the Philippines.
He said they were doing evaluations and sourcing of good trades, service technician candidates, collision repair candidates, and more. “We’re a bit late to the party in that regard, but I was really impressed with the process.”
Qualey said there was lots of in-person direct questioning and testing of the skills of workers from abroad. There is also a former trades instructor who tests the workers’ knowledge on diagnostics, vehicles, brakes, and a variety of other things. “You actually get to see what you’re getting.”
He spent a few days in Manila with colleague Gerald Wood from the Motor Dealers Association of Alberta. “I think we were both very impressed with the process. Subsequent to that, we of course have gone out to our members and said, ‘This is what we’re doing. This is the opportunity.”
