Human Resources Committee on Feb. 25th, 2014

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

I call the meeting to order.

Welcome and good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

This is meeting number 13 of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities. Today is Tuesday, February 25, 2014, and we are continuing our study concerning opportunities for aboriginal persons in the workforce. Today we have a split panel of witnesses to provide their testimony.

Before we move on to the introduction of the witnesses, I'd like to inform committee members on two fronts.

We will need 15 minutes for committee business at the end of our session, which will necessitate cutting each of the panels down to 50-minute instead of 60-minute panels, and that will cut the amount of questioning from members.

Second, a document has been distributed. It's in front of you in a blue folder. It is not translated. I would like the committee's approval to accept the document in a single language; otherwise we will remove it from the table. It was provided by one of our first panel witnesses.

Do I see any—?

Madame Groguhé.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mr. Chair, would it be possible to obtain a French translation of this document? We would be most grateful to have it in French.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Okay. So you are accepting it today?

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Yes, for now it's okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

It's okay for today. Okay, thank you for that.

Let's move on to our witnesses.

First I would like to introduce Beverly Blanchard, the acting director of labour market development for the Native Women's Association of Canada. Dan Peters is the coordinator of partnership and outreach for the Native Women's Association of Canada.

The second group is the National Association of Friendship Centres. We have Jeffrey Cyr, the executive director, and Sonya Howard, their policy analyst.

Third in the first panel is the Métis National Council. David Chartrand is the vice-president, and David Boisvert is the senior policy adviser.

Thank you for being here.

We'll move to Beverly Blanchard as the first presenter.

You have 10 minutes.

[Beverly Blanchard, Acting Director, Labour Market Development, Native Women's Association of Canada]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We're extremely pleased to be here to give to you our experiences with aboriginal programs in the area of workforce employment and training.

No one has a crystal ball to accurately forecast what the Canadian economy will be like in the 2015 to 2020 time range. Historically, there have been forecasts that have painted a rosy picture of economic growth and stability, only to be revised after the fact to reflect significant downturns in the economy and changes in labour market trends. The current interrelatedness of Canada within the global economy has also created an environment in which economic models can no longer be forecasted in isolation.

Over the course of the past 20 years, the troubling socio-economic outcomes of aboriginal women have been well documented. The multiple barriers they face in entering and retaining employment in the labour market are numerous. When comparing non-aboriginal women with their male counterparts, the statistics all demonstrate that aboriginal women have lower income levels and work in lower occupational categories.

The most recent release of the 2011 national household survey revealed that gaps in the labour market outcomes between aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities continue to persist, and this is particularly heightened when aboriginal women are looked at as a separate category.

Highlights of these statistics as they relate to aboriginal women and the labour market are as follows. Nearly twice as many aboriginal women as men have a university education. This translates into women accounting for 65% of the university-educated aboriginal labour force, compared with 52% among non-aboriginal people. For the Canadian population as a whole, approximately 57% of total university enrolments were female. This share is likely even higher in the case of aboriginal involvement.

Although aboriginal women have higher educational rates, education and health care tend to be the predominant fields of study. This gender bias persists in the broader labour market as well, in which Canadian women are heavily over-represented in areas related to the public sector while men are concentrated in those high-growth industries related to resource extraction and construction, industries that have higher levels of income. Among aboriginal peoples, this gender divide is even more glaring. Females represent 82.3% of aboriginal employees in health care, education, and public administration, compared with 70.4% among non-aboriginal employees.

For aboriginal women, this high concentration of employment in the public sector likely points to other barriers that are impeding their access to the labour market. Since there is no concrete research, one can assume based on anecdotal information that some of the barriers could be lack of job opportunities due to geographical barriers, discriminatory hiring practices, and poor labour market choices for making informed career decisions.

Among aboriginal people aged 25 to 64, 28.9% had no certificate, diploma, or degree, while the proportion of non-aboriginal people in the same group was 12.1%. The proportion of aboriginal people aged 25 to 64 with a high school diploma or equivalent as their highest level of educational attainment was 22.8%. In comparison, 23.2% of non-aboriginal people in the same age group had a high school diploma or equivalent as the highest qualification.

The proportion of aboriginal women aged 35 to 44 who had university degrees in 2011 was 13.6%, compared with 10.2% of those aged 55 to 64. Aboriginal women have a tendency to go back to school in later years, and most of our programming is directed at youth. This poses a bit of a barrier for older aboriginal women, who aren't really that much older, when you consider that the category is for those aged 35 and upwards.

Among aboriginal men, there is no difference between the age groups in the proportions who held university degrees. It was 7.6% for men aged both 35 to 44 and 55 to 65.

In 2011, younger aboriginal women and men were more likely to have college diplomas than older ones.

Among aboriginal women aged 35 to 44, 27.1% had a college diploma in 2011 compared with 21.4% of those aged 55 to 64. With a proportion of 18.3%, aboriginal men aged 35 to 44 were also more likely to have college diplomas than those aged 55 to 64, where the proportion was 14.1%.

There's a shift that has been taking place over the past 20 years as we have more aboriginal youth and more individuals attending colleges, universities, and gaining degrees. It has been said that education is the key to higher incomes.

In some cases, it's not necessarily key to higher incomes because we have multiple barriers that do play into the whole process, namely being able to be mobile and move to different areas. We have those issues, and we also have the issue that despite your university degree, it may not be the one that's necessary for the qualifications that are being sought after within the Canadian labour market.

NWAC has been delivering the ASETS program, which is the aboriginal skills and employment training strategy, since 2011. As a national ASETS holder, we deliver the strategy through a network of provincial and territorial member associations. Located throughout Canada, these PTMAs, through subagreements with NWAC, deliver the program at the regional grassroots level.

Where we do not have a PTMA or where a PTMA is not ready to deliver the program, NWAC, through its labour market development department, delivers special projects or works with the PTMA to increase its capacity. We have done this with quite a few of our PTMAs. In one case in Saskatchewan, we delivered truck driving training to aboriginal women. In another, in New Brunswick, we worked with a reserve in terms of dealing with training in the area of early childhood education and health practitioners.

Our ASETS programming primarily provides funding to assist all aboriginal women, and when I say all, I mean that we are status blind. We work with Métis, first nations, non-status, and Inuit in employment and training initiatives. It is based on individual needs as well as the community needs reflecting regional realities.

The types of employment and training interventions we provide include individual training purchases where we will purchase for an individual education, such as college or individual training in terms of needing a course to finish their degree. We have job creation partnerships. We have self-employment benefits where we can assist an individual in creating a small business. We have targeted wage subsidies. We just recently signed a spirit of cooperation with a corporation that has offices across Canada and was looking at retaining some of their aboriginal workforce. They work both through the south and the north, and they work with Nav Canada in their training programs. We are currently in negotiations with them regarding targeted wage subsidies to ensure that they can retain the employees. We also do community and group training.

Since its inception, NWAC has worked to uphold the three pillars of the ASETS program. In the area of accountability and results, we have implemented tighter fiscal and financial controls with our subagreement holders in order to ensure our accountability to the Government of Canada.

In addition, we have transitioned to a more user-friendly database system in order to effectively track and report on our training and employment successes. Over the course of the past two years, we have sought out partnerships with a variety of educational institutions, federal government employers, such as Correctional Services Canada, and first nation governments to provide aboriginal women with enhanced employment and training opportunities.

As we enter the final year of the programming, we have stepped up our efforts to seek out private sector partnerships as we believe that partnerships are a stable ingredient in ensuring employment and training opportunities for aboriginal women. We also recognize that in order to develop the appropriate labour market matches, we must make employers aware that aboriginal women are a viable option to their employee requirements.

The linking of aboriginal women to demand-driven skills development has posed some difficulty for us, but once again we've recognized that in order for us to fulfill this government priority, we must develop partnerships with a variety of public and private sector employers. We must recognize, however, that although some aboriginal women can match these skills, we need training and employment options for aboriginal women who are facing multiple barriers to gaining access.

To date our program has assisted 463 clients. Of these, 111 have gained meaningful employment following their training interventions and 72 have returned to their studies.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Thank you, Ms. Blanchard.

Mr. Cyr, you have 10 minutes, sir.

[Jeffrey Cyr, Executive Director, National Association of Friendship Centres]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair and distinguished members of the standing committee, thank you for this opportunity to present on opportunities for aboriginal persons in the workforce.

First, l wish to acknowledge the Algonquin nation, whose traditional territory we are on today.

As you know, my name is Jeffrey Cyr. I'm a Métis from Manitoba and the executive director of the National Association of Friendship Centres.

Today l'd like to share three things with you.

One, l would like to give you a brief overview of the friendship centre movement and the urban aboriginal population of Canada.

Two, I'd like to present you with a proposed effective service delivery model designed to enhance and improve labour market opportunities for aboriginal people living in urban environments in Canada.

Three, time permitting, I'd like to share some of the best practices that friendship centres have developed over the last 40 years of developing and sustaining partnerships with all levels of government and building bridges with industry to deliver labour market programing to Canada's urban aboriginal people.

Let me begin. Seventy-five per cent of Canada's aboriginal people live off-reserve. Nearly 60% of those people live in urban areas. Furthermore, the aboriginal population is growing at a faster rate than the non-aboriginal population. This means there are approximately 840,000 aboriginal people living in Canadian cities.

The Canadian aboriginal population is also young—we've heard it from your previous witness—with approximately 50% under the age of 24. There is a tremendous pool of aboriginal youth in this country wanting to acquire the skills to find employment. Not only does this represent a growing segment of Canada's labour pool, but it is also a segment seeking to develop the resiliency for real, meaningful, and lasting careers. It's the topic I keep coming back to of economic resiliency.

As Canada' s original and community-driven urban aboriginal strategy, the friendship centre network is Canada's most significant off-reserve aboriginal service delivery infrastructure. With 2.3 million client points of contact nationwide, 119 friendship centres in cities and towns across Canada delivered over 1,490 programs and services to approximately 840,000 urban aboriginal people in 2011 and 2012. That's regardless of a person's nationhood, status, or band affiliation.

As you may have heard, under a recent urban aboriginal strategy funding realignment by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, the National Association of Friendship Centres now has the responsibility to deliver a further 43 million dollars' worth of programs and services out of a total of $50.8 million under the new urban aboriginal strategy. So in partnership with the Government of Canada, we are developing a new model for service delivery under this new aboriginal strategy. This realigned UAS funding helps friendship centres to not only increase services but also, more importantly, helps build and expand on partnerships between all levels of government, organizations, urban aboriginal communities, and other stakeholders to support urban aboriginal people taking part in Canada' s economy.

For over 40 years friendship centres have been acting as brokers—and I'll come back to that term—for Canada' s urban aboriginal peoples by identifying a pool of urban aboriginal labour and connecting them with the right education and training to help guide individuals to the right jobs. Friendship centres helped over 28,000 urban and off-reserve aboriginal people take part in the labour market in 2012 and 2013.

Friendship centres have achieved lasting client success using a holistic, culturally based approach, supporting individual development with a suite of wraparound services, including, for example, on-site child care in Val d'Or, addictions counselling in Yellowknife, or on-campus mentorship at Grande Prairie Friendship Centre's regional college location.

What makes friendship centres unique is not only the range of wraparound services delivered through an extensive network but also the fact that centres have over 60 years of experience working directly with Canada' s urban aboriginal people.

Just as important as wraparound services has been the ability of friendship centres to form deep partnerships with small, medium, and large enterprises, industry, the resource sector, colleges, high schools, trades bodies, chambers of commerce, and business associations to connect clients to careers.

Drawing on the friendship centres' proven, successful history in labour market program delivery, the National Association of Friendship Centres proposes an enhancement to urban aboriginal labour market delivery. Essentially, the friendship centre labour market strategy—which is in English only, but I can table it with you, if you would like, and have the translation come later—expands and streamlines urban aboriginal labour market programming by supporting 85 friendship centres across this country to continue doing what they do best, and that's to be brokers.

In this broker role, friendship centres connect Canada' s urban aboriginal people with the right education, training, and wraparound supports, not only to help guide individuals to the right jobs but also to build long-lasting and meaningful careers.

This model would allow for the harmonization of existing wraparound services provided by friendship centres from municipal, provincial, and federal levels, like aboriginal head starts, child care services, education and literacy-related services, and a broad array of social supports ranging from health to housing.

Friendship centres are not interested in duplicating services done more effectively by others. This model does not focus on specialized skills training. Rather, it draws on the friendship centre movement's pre-existing partnerships with service organizations, training and education institutions, trades and apprenticeship bodies, industry, businesses, and other aboriginal organizations like ASETS holders, which we have around this table.

This model proposes one contribution agreement administered nationally through the National Association of Friendship Centres to provincial and territorial associations for local friendship centres service and program delivery, and I've shared the model directly with the departmental officials already.

This model would provide a unified program and reporting structure that can reach 85 communities from coast to coast to coast through a well-established, well-governed, and accountable network that has over 18 years of experience delivering and reporting on nationally managed programs like the previous cultural connections for aboriginal youth and Young Canada Works for the Government of Canada.

Further, this model is based on a flexible delivery approach that is responsive to national, regional, local, and remote community realities. At the heart of this model are partnerships. Partners from private sector, industry, education and training institutions, chambers of commerce, youth representatives, and other organizations would be actively engaged in program management and refinement through labour market tables at the friendship centre, regional and national levels.

The national partnership table we are proposing would identify national and regional labour market trends, and identify ways they and others in their sectors could support urban aboriginal peoples' participation in Canada's economy. The national table would represent the NAFC, the private sector, industry, trade unions, educational institutions, government, and aboriginal youth.

The friendship centre network is inherently scalable. We can say with certainty that at least 30 centres across Canada would be ready to go within a year. An additional 35 centres could be effectively up and delivering labour market programming by the end of year two. A final additional 20 centres could be up by the end of year three. So if we want to do ASETS and labour market programming delivery differently, then there is a way. This phased approach would ensure there is adequate time and support for capacity development and any systems, reporting structure, and implementations necessary. We have reams of experience in doing this. We do it every day now across the country.

We know this phased approach would work because friendship centres have already delivered federal labour market programming under pathways to success, which is the ASETS and AHRDS precursor. Further, friendship centres across the country are currently already delivering labour market programming with a mix of provincial and federal funding.There are 13 subagreements that friendship centres are delivering now.

This model would also help ensure that there are few, if any, gaps in service delivery during any transitions periods, as friendship centres across the country can draw on their formal and informal partnerships with their local ASETS holders. These partnerships are already in place across the country, be it formally through third-party funding agreements, working together to deliver training programs, housing an ASETS employment counsellor at the friendship centre, or informally by referring clients to friendship centres or ASETS holders based on the client's needs.

I recognize that there are many examples of excellent labour market programming already in place across the country, and I know we'll hear more of these examples today from some of the other presenters. The friendship centre network has the partnerships, wraparound services, infrastructure, and experience necessary to enhance existing programming and expand opportunities for urban aboriginal Canadians to develop the tools, skills, and resiliency for meaningful engagement with the labour market. In my last interaction with the Prime Minister, we discussed how best to use the friendship centre network fully to deliver more services to more urban aboriginal people in Canada. We intend to follow through with that.

Thanks very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Thank you, Mr. Cyr.

We will go now to Mr. Chartrand for 10 minutes, sir.

[David Chartrand, Vice-President, Métis National Council]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to start off again by thanking the committee for allowing us to be here today. I apologize that our presentation is not translated into French. I do apologize. With more time, we'll make sure that happens in the future.

We've given all of you a kit, and in the kit you'll find the full presentation of my full report, which has more detailed statistics about the rise of GDP and the investment and how it changes the market not only for the Métis but for Canada. You'll also find my speaking notes, which I'll try to keep to 10 minutes, as well as a Calgary chamber study and Métis works. So when you have the opportunity, please take the time to read it.

I'd like to acknowledge our president, Clément Chartier, who is here, and our five provincial Métis affiliates who deliver the ASETS program. We had a meeting here yesterday so this was great timing.

With regard to national Métis women, we have a national Métis women's organization that belongs, in fact, to our Métis National Council board, and provincial Métis affiliates from Ontario west, who are full participants in our governance, in our infrastructure of services. It should also be noted that although my presentation will zero in on the ASETS program pertaining to the Department of Employment and Social Development Canada, the Métis governments of Ontario west to British Columbia deliver a wide spectrum of services, from housing to health programs, to mandated provincial child services, to colleges, to educational and economic development, and so on.

It's down to my speaking notes. There is no more important matter for Métis people than securing a better future for themselves and their families. That is what the aboriginal labour market development is all about. Our presentation is a little too long, so as I said, I put it into speaking notes.

The Métis are one of Canada's aboriginal peoples. Métis are not just mixed bloods, a product of unions between Europeans and first nations. In the territory of the Old Northwest, a region we call the Métis nation homeland today, we constitute a unique people, distinct from both Europeans and first nations—a Métis nation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Mr. Chartrand, could I just ask you to slow down?

[David Chartrand]

Okay, I'm thinking about my 10 minutes. Let me squeeze in an extra minute and I'll be very pleased. I'll slow it down. Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

We're having some translation issues, sir. Would you slow it down a little bit. Thank you.

[David Chartrand]

The Métis National Council was formed to represent the Métis nation at the national and international levels. It is composed of five provincial Métis governing members: the Manitoba Métis Federation, of which I'm president and also vice-president, nationally; the Métis Nation of Alberta; the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan; the Métis Nation of Ontario; and the Métis Nation British Columbia.

Each of the MNC's governing members have been involved in managing and delivering labour marketing programs to their respective constituencies since 1996. Only five of the 85 ASETS holders across Canada are MNC affiliates. Together, we currently receive $49.8 million per annum from the ASETS, less than 15.5% of the total ASETS budget, although we account for over 25% of Canada's aboriginal population.

Up to this point, federal aboriginal labour market development strategies have been renewed in one form or another every five years. We believe it is critical for the Government of Canada to renew the strategy once again and I shall explain why.

In terms of the continuing relevance of aboriginal labour market development, Canada has an aging population, with ever-increasing numbers of the baby boom generation set to retire in the next decade or so. Canada's aboriginal population, on the other hand, is a very young population. It is also the fastest growing population. While the growth rate of the Canada's labour force is expected to slow—and in some scenarios, actually turn negative over the next 15 years—Statistics Canada's latest aboriginal population projections indicate that Canada's aboriginal population could reach 2.2 million by 2031, a 57% increase over the current levels.

In the prairie provinces, Métis account for from 33% to 44% of the aboriginal population, and in Ontario and British Columbia, roughly 30%. Métis are a very significant part of the aboriginal population in all the regions represented by the MNC and its provincial governing members.

We are also the fastest growing segment of Canada's aboriginal population. Between 1996 and 2011, Métis identity counts increased by 121% nationally. An important awakening is taking place. People who had submerged their Métis origins for so long, as a result of over a century of political and cultural repression, are now finding the courage to stand up and be counted as Métis. There can be no doubt that Métis constitute a very significant part of Canada's aboriginal population today and will continue to be a significant part of that population tomorrow.

It makes sense that a growing and youthful aboriginal population should help fill the shortfall in the labour market due to the attrition of older workers and the growth of the Canadian economy. But to have this happen some major obstacles have to be overcome. The fact of the matter is that aboriginal peoples—first nations, Métis, and Inuit—share a history of having been marginalized and excluded from the mainstream economy. This is reflected today in lower levels of educational attainment, higher proportions of the population outside the labour force or unemployed, lower skill levels, lower incomes, and fewer job opportunities. This is where aboriginal labour market development initiatives become very important.

In terms of a successful strategy, we are not starting from scratch. As far as the Métis are concerned, federal strategies since 1996 have succeeded in two major ways.

First, an infrastructure has been put in place that reaches aboriginal people.

If you want aboriginal people to participate in labour market programs, two major conditions have to be met: first, delivery mechanisms have to be specific to each of the aboriginal peoples of Canada, first nations, Inuit, and Métis; and second, they must reach them in the communities where they live. Programs must be delivered by institutions with which the community is familiar and consider their own.

Since 1996, federal aboriginal labour market development programs have, in fact, been delivered on a distinctions-based basis, and that's a very important aspect. In the case of the MNC, labour market programs are delivered to Métis in Ontario by the Métis Nation of Ontario; in Manitoba, by the Manitoba Métis Federation; in Saskatchewan, by the Gabriel Dumont Institute, which is a college; in Alberta, by the Rupertsland Institute; and in British Columbia by the Métis Nation British Columbia.

Each is a province-wide organization with a network of offices and delivery sites throughout the province. In total, there are 49 delivery sites providing labour market programs and services to Métis in the Métis homeland.

This is important because, across the Métis homeland, 45% of Métis live in what Statistics Canada classifies as “small urban centres” or in rural areas. Another 42% live in large urban centres, and 12.5% in medium population centres. There's a half of a per cent missing, but those are the ones who live on reserve. We have the infrastructure in place to reach our people wherever they live.

Second, programs are achieving results.

Aboriginal people are not all the same. For example, in the case of Métis, more of our young people complete high school than is the case for Inuit and first nations, although proportionately much fewer than in the non-aboriginal population.

The 1996 census figures showed, however, that a smaller percentage of our people had university degrees, 4.1%. That was the case even for first nations at 4.5%. Métis do not have access to the post-secondary assistance programs that Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada provides to first nations and Inuit post-secondary students. To address the situation, we negotiated special provisions in our labour market contribution agreement that allows us to create endowment funds, fund clients for courses up to 64 weeks in length, and support apprenticeship training for the full duration of the apprenticeships. Only our Métis agreements have these agreements.

Métis endowment funds totalling $32 million have now been established at major universities and colleges in Manitoba, Alberta, and Ontario. These endowments have been created on a matching dollar-for-dollar basis with post-secondary institutions. To date they have generated over $4.8 million in revenue, which has gone to provide bursaries to close to 4,000 Métis students. It will continue to provide bursaries for our post-secondary students well into the future, surpassing the initial investment.

Most new jobs require post-secondary education and many university degrees. We want our people to succeed in the labour market, so we support our clients in a course of up to two years in duration to enable them to obtain college and university certificates and diplomas. This is not training for the sake of training, but rather the best way to ensure that clients obtain credentials that will lead to meaningful employment.

Employment remains the ultimate objective as the key measure of program success. Since the beginning of ASETS in 2010 to December 31, 2013, we have together served 9,945 clients of whom 2,221 were still in the process of completing their interventions as of December 31. Of the remaining 7,724 who completed what is known as an action plan, approximately 58% had found employment within 12 weeks and 22% had returned to school, which translates into an 80% success rate. That is not failure, my friends, but success.

Moving forward, spending on aboriginal labour market development is an investment. A number of independent studies have been published in recent years, showing the fiscal impact over the long-term of investing in improving educational and related labour force outcomes for aboriginal people. I encourage you to read the longer version later, and you'll see what the study concludes in increased GDP and so forth, if Métis people are given an extra opportunity. They are cited in our presentation. The results are truly astonishing.

Investing in aboriginal education and skills development is a win-win proposition. It improves the lives of our people. It raises income. It enables first nations, Métis, and Inuit to address Canadian labour market needs. It adds to GDP and increases tax revenues.

Moving forward, we've set out five points of our current federal labour market strategy that could be improved. Métis should no longer be excluded from one important element of the ASETS strategy, which is the support for child care currently only available to first nations and Inuit. It's not available to us. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work. Labour market strategies must be adjusted to the realities of each of the aboriginal peoples of Canada. This means changing the current approach, the strategic planning, and adjusting the terms of the contribution agreements to reflect the realities of each of the aboriginal peoples of Canada.

The Government of Canada must do more to encourage provinces and territories and the private sector to partner with ASETS agreement holders. Although we have had success with partnerships, the Government of Canada should do more to promote ASETS to the business community. We'd like to discuss this with regard to how an aboriginal component could be built into the proposed jobs grant. We believe that provinces, which have done next to nothing to partner with us, should be required in the next generation of LMAs to work with asset holders to optimize delivery of aboriginal labour market programs, including for the Métis. We've echoed that loud and clear, that the provinces have not included us in any of these discussions that are taking place on job grants, yet they're saying the aboriginal people are benefiting. I've yet to see that anywhere in the Métis homeland.

I'll conclude shortly, Mr. Chair. There must be some recognition of the rising costs of education and the burgeoning aboriginal populations. More funding is needed and rather than cap funding levels, an escalator should be built into the program. A more balanced approach must be taken to the accountability regime imposed on ASETS holders. Finally, ASETS and its predecessors have provided the Government of Canada and the aboriginal people of Canada with the basic framework to address aboriginal labour market issues. Programs have been successful, but certain improvements can be made. On behalf of the Métis nation, we can hopefully state that this has been one of the best programs—I'll repeat myself, one of the best programs—we have ever been involved with. It has proven itself over and over. We must continue to improve labour market outcomes for our people and the process will benefit Canada as a whole.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Thank you. Mr. Chartrand.

I did give you an additional almost two minutes there, sir, so thank you for slowing down.

Welcome back to the committee, Ms. Crowder. You have the first round of questions from the NDP for five minutes.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses. I only have five minutes, so this is going to be tough because you've all presented very good information.

I think you're probably well aware that this committee has actually done previous studies, which I sat on, where we heard from resource industries about the importance of first nations, Inuit, and Métis to the future workforce, and encouraged the committee at that time to take a look at continuing to support programs like the ASETS program.

Mr. Chartrand, you alluded to this, and so did Ms. Blanchard.

There are a couple of issues that I've heard consistently from ASETS holders. First of all is the lack of adequate child care, because as Ms. Blanchard pointed out, oftentimes students returning are older students and they have family responsibilities. Mr. Chartrand, you pointed out the Métis nation doesn't have child care in its agreements.

The second piece that I've heard is that there is inadequate funding with regards to labour market research to make sure that your students are connecting with the jobs that are out there.

The third thing I've heard consistently is lack of adequate resources, and that the funding agreements haven't substantially changed over the last decade or so.

The fourth part, which Mr. Chartrand alluded to, were the challenges with forming partnerships, particularly with businesses, but also that there's an absence of accountability with regard to provincial governments stepping up and recognizing those targets.

There was one more, the reporting burden.

Can you comment on those points, and would you have specific recommendations to address that?

I'll start with Ms. Blanchard.

[Beverly Blanchard]

In terms of funding for research, you raise a very good point. The problem with a lot of the labour market information is that it's dated. Even in terms of finding information to speak about the changes that are happening within the aboriginal population, we have stuff from 2006, and it's changed. We can't accurately reflect that.

The other is in terms of labour trends. In some cases we are directing students into educational tracks that are not going to produce jobs. We have to look at better ways to forecast what's coming down the pipe in terms of labour market programming.

In terms of partnerships, what we have discovered at NWAC is that we also have to become very proactive in getting out and letting individual companies and corporations and governments at all levels know that we have training dollars and are willing to move forward to put together partnerships that are mutually beneficial for all groups.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Thanks. I'll move on because my five minutes includes your responses.

Mr. Cyr, can you respond to any of those points?

[Jeffrey Cyr]

Sure. The Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres runs an ASETS program. We have several running special projects fund, or SPF, projects as well as ourselves here at our national office. One thing that's quite clear is that there is still a heavy reporting burden without a lot of clarity. In our opinion, it needs to be simplified and a uniform reporting platform needs to come into place. Perhaps Mr. Chartrand can comment, but I believe that the federal government is not pursuing contact for the reporting system that was previously in place in favour of having individual agreement holders pursue it on their own, which I'm not sure makes for greater clarity or not.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Contact for...has created great problems.

[Jeffrey Cyr]

Yes, I would agree. I've seen it and it would.

On the research side, there's clearly a gap between what I call the supply side of the urban aboriginal labour market and the demand side of industry and jobs. I think that's something that probably is going to come up in the Canada job grant. It would be great to see how, as Mr. Chartrand pointed out, the aboriginal side gets portrayed within the job grant. I don't think there's yet enough detail to say.

At the National Association of Friendship Centres we have an urban aboriginal knowledge network, which is a $2.5 million SSHRC grant, which is looking at issues in the urban environment for aboriginal people.

I'll try to be quicker. I see you looking at me.

We've also made overtures toward the department to put in place under their special projects initiative looking at the supply side of the labour market, data collection on that. It's actually incredibly weak, and it's very dispersed. It's not uniform at all. So in there, there needs to be research and the ability at a local level to connect supply and demand.

I'll stop there, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Thank you, Mr. Cyr.

Now on to Mrs. McLeod.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I have to make a quick comment. Although I know that we're really focused on natural resource industries and opportunities, I want to still give a shout out to the people who decide to commit to health care and education. We talked about there being a lot of women who head into that field. It certainly pays better than it used to and continues, of course, to provide absolutely critically important opportunities for the men and the women who choose that path.

I'm going to focus and maybe take it from the macro to the micro level, because to be quite frank, I think it can get a little confusing. Let's say we have a mine that's proposed for North Thompson Valley. We have a very strong, active Métis association there. We have a friendship centre, an ASETS holder, and some provincial programs. Talk to me about how a young woman—and in this we'll use a young woman who's now living in the Kamloops area—is going to decide which door to go through. Do we really have things that are overlapping too much?

I'll open that up to everyone, because it seems like we have BladeRunners, BCAMTA, and ASETS holders. So how does the individual young woman decide what she's going to do and where she's going to go?

I'll start with Ms. Blanchard.

[Beverly Blanchard]

I think one of the ways has to be that the ASETS holders have to market themselves so that individuals know that these services exist. I think there's a definite problem, not just with the ASETS holders but with the non-aboriginal government programming in that individuals don't know what's available to them. In order for that to be overcome, in some cases we have to start using social networks.

We have to start looking at the Internet in terms of reaching audiences and reaching the audiences that we are targeting to help. We also have to look at partnering with all the various players, because sometimes we can provide one form of training for somebody and one of the other ASETS holders, the friendship centres, or the provincial governments can provide something else.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Mr. Cyr, could you talk to that?