Thank you, Madam Chair.
My thanks to the witnesses for being here.
First of all, I would like to make a short comment. As I familiarized myself with the briefing book, it became very clear to me that young Aboriginal people are caught in an exclusion cycle. It is a downward spiral, and the economic deficit and poverty only make the situation worse. The exclusion cycle in terms of entry into the workforce has many facets. Studies have been done on the issue. We know for a fact that, when groups of people are struggling, one of the solutions is to enable them to start school at a young age. The more we educate and guide children early on, when they are 2 or 3, the better the chances this cycle will be broken.
I wanted to make that comment because I felt it was important and essential. Right now, instead of taking a preventive approach, we are taking a curative approach. But we know that a curative approach has its limits.
Are skills development and training programs regulated so that we can assess whether the objectives have been achieved? You gave us some numbers. We have some results. But how many people benefited from those types of programs?