Human Resources Committee on May 27th, 2014

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

That's fine.

I just want to say, as well, that it goes along with Mr. Mayes' question regarding accountability and moving people into the workforce.

I appreciated your comment, Ms. Hodgson, regarding not having a labour shortage but a skills shortage. You mentioned 70,000 Métis, I believe it is, in Alberta. Is that who you represent, or is there another association that represents more of them as well? How much of the population would that be?

Then, for all three, everyone talked about the use of corporate partners in getting jobs and getting people moved into the jobs. How would we best be able to use the LMDAs to access more corporates to help with that training? We have a program now that will be able to give employers the opportunity to move forward with training dollars into community college-type trades. I wonder if you see that as being a help in the future. How do you see the LMDAs fitting into the corporate side in getting more of your people into work?

[Colleen Hodgson]

I thank you for the question about the representation of Métis people in British Columbia. There are approximately 70,000 Métis people. I think the statistics are well known that the age group is quite young and of that workforce-type age.

I believe in a somewhat pragmatic approach. What I mean by that is that although PETRONAS or BG Group or TransCanada, or whoever, has these huge projects going on up north, it is the contractors, as I mentioned before, who are the employers.

One of the ways we did that was that in March of 2013, I brought together all of those partners. I brought together all the leads on employment training from all the industry sectors. We brought the unions in. We brought the B.C. government in. We had AANDC there. We had HRSDC ASETS representatives there. We had a round table for two days and had that discussion. Several recommendations were brought out of that.

This year we brought together the energy development and the Métis in western Canada. When we had all the CEOs and presidents from all the industry partners in Canada and the United States there, along with the provincial and federal government, Western Diversification, and a lot of deputy directors, from that we brought those recommendations for industry.

Having said that, sharing the information and the knowledge about who you are and what those objectives and goals are, I think they are the same. But we're not talking to each other enough. When we talk to them and say, okay, how are you going to...? I'm sorry, but I'm a very pragmatic person. If I have TransCanada and they are doing some clearing on a right-of-way for all the electrical projects that people forget about because all of those pumping stations have to have generation stations—and it's another whole huge dynamic of industry development—we need some guys to clear that line.

TransCanada doesn't hire them. Some logging company or somebody is going to need those guys. If we're not in touch with those guys at our community level, they are not going to get the work or the contracts. We have gone out there and started building joint venture agreements with bigger companies to give us the sustainability and capital to access those contracts through joint venture agreements. At the same time, we have made them agree in writing that they would hire our people and train them. So another way to do this is through joint venture agreements. The economic development skills training capacity piece, I think is one thing.

Thank you very much, Chair.

[The Vice-Chair (Ms. Jinny Jogindera Sims), NDP, Jinny Sims]

Now I'm going to go over to Mr. Brahmi.

[Tarik Brahmi, NDP, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to comment on what Ms. Hodgson said earlier about the matter of transferability of training and skills.

You gave the example of paramedics, whose skills aren't transferable from one province to another. We are aware of that problem, which really affects immigrants. Newcomers have a lot of trouble when they come here in terms of having their education and credentials recognized. Indeed, it may seem preposterous for provinces with just two, three or four million people to have incompatible systems. All that does is put up another barrier. I completely agree with your take on the subject.

Whenever we hear from first nations representatives, I try to understand the specific problems that members of those communities face, as compared with the general population.

How can LMDAs be tailored to better reflect the unique problems that members in your communities are confronted by?

In my view, one of the obvious problems is location, living in a remote rural community as opposed to downtown Vancouver. Members of remote communities don't encounter the same barriers when it comes to accessing training programs. Some will have to move. They may have trouble finding childcare or accommodations in the place where the training is offered.

From your own perspective, what specific challenges do the people you meet have to deal with? What would you suggest as far as solutions go?

[Chief Nelson Leon]

Some of the problems, I guess, are low education and achievement levels, not all people getting to grade 12. Second is that drug and alcohol use is an issue. Child care may be an issue. Transportation may be an issue. One critical issue is what you would call “survivability” in the workplace; that is, retention, because there still are systematic prejudices within the workplace. We found in Mica units 5 and 6 projects, where we're partnered with the camp construction and the catering contract, that until we got over about five to seven people—a critical mass of our people in there—people would go, and if they ran into HR problems, they'd quit. So staying there and be determined there.... Once we got about 15 people in there, we had enough aboriginal people in the workplace that if they did run into problems they were supporting each other and standing up for each other.

So I think that those are some of the key areas that need to be addressed.

[Tarik Brahmi, NDP, Saint-Jean, QC]

Ms. Hunt, could you also answer that please?

[Karin Hunt]

One of the critical elements is the cross-cultural piece. By this I mean every industry has a culture, every occupation within the industry could have a culture, depending on the different departments within it. Our people also, of course, have a culture. There is a way of blending those cultures to be able to accommodate the communication styles of each so that there's a better blend and a better understanding.

Oftentimes workplace incidents occur because of that lack of communication. We look toward industry to invite us to come in—or we actually invite ourselves to come in—and do that piece with them so that more of our people will want to stay with a particular occupation. So that is a huge piece.

[Tarik Brahmi, NDP, Saint-Jean, QC]

We don't have much time and I'd like to give Ms. Hodgson a chance to answer the question.

[Karin Hunt]

Yes.

[Colleen Hodgson]

Thank you for the question. It's a great question, and one that we often talk about.

I'll just cover a couple of things here. The transferability for training is a huge issue. Maybe it's a good thing, maybe it's not, but are Kitimat and Prince Rupert going to be the Fort Mac of British Columbia? People aren't necessarily apt to leave their communities. You mentioned the travel and the distance. I've been to Fort Mac several times and have been on those airplanes with all those guys from Vancouver Island or Halifax or someplace. Maybe that's okay. If that's what they want to do, that's cool, but for aboriginal people—I'll just give you an example.

The Unified Aboriginal Youth Collective for Canada just met on Vancouver Island at Tofino this year, and out of that came the focus that HRSDC and the Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation from B.C. put on it. What is the aboriginal youth's perspective right now in Canada: unemployment, skills training? They don't want to leave their communities. That is the new message. They don't want to go to Fort Mac. They don't want to live in Prince Rupert. They want to stay in their communities, so considering what these investments are for the youth, we need to consider. Do they want to live in Vancouver and travel to Prince Rupert for two weeks in and two weeks out?

We're looking at something new in Canada with industry development, specifically in British Columbia. It's a new picture. I know for me, it's taking a step back and looking at things differently and looking at innovative ways to do it. But without having that data, it's going to be very difficult to make that successful.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair (Ms. Jinny Jogindera Sims), NDP, Jinny Sims]

Thank you, Colleen. Your time is up.

I want to thank the three panellists.

Colleen, you're a very brave woman. For you to carry on making this presentation when I know you had really bad news about your mum just before this—so from the bottom of my heart, thank you. It also shows the passion you have for this that you wanted to carry on and give testimony.

The meeting is adjourned.