MONTREAL – Bell Canada today announced the creation of a new coalition aimed at the development of a future generation of information technology experts able to meet the needs of Canadian companies.
The news was disclosed during a business luncheon of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal by guest speaker Stéphane Boisvert, President – Enterprise for Bell.
The Canadian Coalition for IT Succession will strive to consolidate and ensure the long-term sustainability of IT know-how in Canada, given the rapidly emerging shortage of professional workers in this sector. This major national coalition will be comprised of prominent Canadian organizations active in the IT sector or for which information technology is critical to their operations, says the press release.
Numerous companies have already confirmed their participation in the coalition. These include Hydro-Québec, Desjardins Group, CGI, Gaz Métro, Nortel Networks, Rogers Communications, Canadian National Railway Co., TD Meloche Monnex, IBM Canada, Avaya Canada, Pratt & Whitney Canada, BMO Financial Group, Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada, Air Canada and Loto-Québec.
"Bell has taken the initiative of bringing together the major players in the Canadian economy to face this important challenge as a group," said Boisvert. "Our goal is to stop the current erosion of technological talent and infuse Canada’s IT sector with a new vitality."
The preliminary report from the Conference Board of Canada confirms that Canadian businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit qualified IT workers, adds the release.
"This phenomenon is in part due to demographic factors such as an aging population, a low birthrate and the departure or retirement of baby boomers. However, the primary – and most worrisome – reason is a drop in enrolments in IT programs in universities across Canada, and particularly in Quebec and the Maritimes," says the release.
"Neglecting to take the necessary steps to significantly grow the pool of IT workers in Canada will have repercussions. Considering that each vacant IT position represents an average cost to the Canadian economy of $119,000 a year, the Conference Board of Canada determined that failing to fill the 89,000 or so IT jobs that will become available over the next three to five years would represent losses in excess of $10 billion – and this is a conservative estimate,” added Boisvert.
