Human Resources Committee on Dec. 5th, 2013

[Chris Rainer]

I don't have those figures. I'm not even sure we track that. Those are the choices of individual students.

We do know that K-to-12 and post-secondary education unlocks all sorts of opportunities. It widens choices for individuals to pursue their careers and to either return to the communities, or to help their communities but from different areas, and we know of many individual examples. We don't track whether students return to their communities or not. Those are their choices to make.

[Brad Butt, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Okay.

Is there more time, Madam Chair, or am I done?

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

You have another minute and 15 seconds.

[Brad Butt, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Do you have any examples of some of the corporate partnerships we've seen, where obviously a business that is within close proximity to an aboriginal community is working hard to partner with and obviously train? Hopefully they will have those young people become employees of their companies, because the work they are doing is in the area.

There were a couple of examples, which I think Mr. Clarke mentioned. Are there others where the private sector and the band council or the reserve are working in partnership specifically to train and then place individuals in full-time positions within those companies?

That's probably going to be it, Madam Chair.

[James Sutherland]

I have some strong examples of that.

The first one I would mention would be Noront in the Ring of Fire, which we just signed a skills and partnership agreement with. There's Nalcor, I think it is, in Labrador, with the Lower Churchill project. De Beers in the Northwest Territories works with a project. There's a collectivity of mining companies within the interior of B.C. that are contributing 50%.

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

Thank you very much.

We're going to Mr. Tremblay.

[Jonathan Tremblay, NDP, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

Thank you very much.

Thank you for coming to speak to our study on the opportunities for Aboriginal persons in the workforce.

There are provincial programs. My question is quite broad. Have you thought about how to co-operate with the provinces and work with the various existing programs?

[James Sutherland]

As part of our engagement strategy for the future, for 2015 and beyond, we've had direct discussions with a number of provinces. We try to align our aboriginal labour market programming with theirs. We actually see many of our ASETS agreement holders having agreements with the provinces as well in the delivery of programming.

[Jonathan Tremblay, NDP, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

Okay.

Some organizations want to help Aboriginal communities. Have you established relationships with those organizations to see what their recommendations are, or do you go directly to the communities to see what their needs are?

[James Sutherland]

In order to reach economies of scale, over the years we've developed agreements that differ in different places.

In some places, our relationship is directly with the community, or with the governance structure in that community. For example, KRG in Quebec, which is the Inuit group, is who we have our agreement with, and we deal directly with that governance structure. In other areas, it might be done very directly. The Stó:lo in B.C. is another one where our relationship through the ASETS is also directly with the community.

We also do collectivities. In Saskatchewan there is only one agreement, whereby we deal with a representative of all those communities that have come together collectively. Their board is represented by the tribal councils, but we deal with the organization at an organizational level rather than a community level.

[Jonathan Tremblay, NDP, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

Some communities are in more remote areas than others, and it is more difficult for them to have access to services and to benefit from the various programs. We are studying here the opportunities for Aboriginal persons in the workforce. Remote locations are an obstacle. Some communities are doing well and have managed to overcome this challenge, but others are having a harder time. What do you do to ensure that remote communities have access to various programs?

[James Sutherland]

With respect to ASETS, all the communities are covered off with respect to a point of service or a collectivity that deals with it. To ensure that everybody has something in a priority setting, they go through an annual operational plan whereby they explain to us what those priorities are, as well there's a mid-year checkup to make sure things are going well. That is how we make sure they're doing that.

Also, they set their own targets. What we would expect from an urban community with plenty of opportunity isn't necessarily the same as what we might see from an isolated community that does not have those same opportunities.

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

Thank you.

Madame Groguhé, you have one and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Could you tell me if those programs pay special attention to Aboriginal women? Do they receive special training and do they also have access to non-traditional training?

[James Sutherland]

There are different ways to answer that. The first is that we have a collaboration agreement with the Native Women's Association of Canada, whereby they help us in the development of policy. They also hold an ASETS themselves. whereby they deliver direct service across the country.

For the most part our programming is global in nature. However, our results demonstrate about a 50-50 split with respect to access and results. However, I wouldn't be able to tell you whether individual A was in a non-traditional. We do have one specific SPF project that is about women in mining, which is a non-traditional industry for them. That would be the most explicit example of that.

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

I have one last question.

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

You have 15 seconds.

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

I will ask it anyway.

Are targeted measures being taken to address discrimination issues that Aboriginal people may face? How are those types of challenges handled?

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

Thank you very much.

When we come back to Madame Groguhé, she can remind you of the question.

We're going to Monsieur Shory.

[Devinder Shory, Conservative, Calgary Northeast, AB]

Thank you, Chair, and congratulations once again for becoming the chair for today.

Thank you, witnesses.

In other studies we have heard loud and clear that thousands and thousands of aboriginal youth can be available to get into the workforce. On the one hand we have to bring temporary foreign workers here because we have a shortage of skilled workers. On the other hand we have youth available but they are not taking advantage of the opportunities.

Mr. Rainer, in one of your responses you said funding is not the only requirement. You were alluding to other factors as well. Maybe you could expand on that.

[Chris Rainer]

Certainly. Thank you.

In addition to what we've heard about funding, we've heard from various reports, from people like Michael Mendelson, John Richards, and certainly the Auditor General, that there's also the question of whether the right systems and structures are in place to get the results. Can students get access to all the services they need in a one-school model of education, or as we see in the provinces where you have school board entities? We're trying to encourage in the proposed draft of the legislation, can we assist first nations in coming together to create school board-type structures that would allow them to deliver all the second-level services themselves, such as speech pathologists, specialists that any other child in the provincial education systems would have direct access to?

[Devinder Shory, Conservative, Calgary Northeast, AB]

Thank you.

As I said, in previous studies and today as well, we have heard mention of partnership. This partnership with industry has created job opportunities for aboriginal people locally while the projects are taking place in their communities. Is there anything in place that will help connect these people with other jobs once local projects are completed, or once the company moves on to other projects in new areas?

[James Sutherland]

The ASETS is established to accept people who come through looking for work. We deal with them at different levels. At this time there is no limit on somebody returning for access. As part of our structure we have, as you see in that chart, job referrals or job connections as well. It's not just a matter of training people. It's also a matter of connecting them with the available jobs.

[Devinder Shory, Conservative, Calgary Northeast, AB]

In terms of education of first nations, Mr. Daniel also talked about graduation numbers, and you mentioned it was 38% or so. Obviously, this has to be improved. You spoke in your introduction about certain plans to improve the student outcomes.

Is there a plan in place to focus the post-secondary training to target skills that are in demand in the labour market and jobs that are available and accessible to these populations?

[James Sutherland]

That is a key component of what our programming does. The in-demand aspect and the partnership aspect of our programming is established so there's a linkage made between those jobs. While we seem to focus a little bit on entry-level jobs, we see the communities themselves or the ASETS themselves focusing on skilled jobs, trades, things that require apprenticeships, things that require certificates. If you looked at the representation of aboriginal people in the skilled trades, you'd see that there has been a fair bit of success in that area.