Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to welcome our witnesses here this morning and thank you for your testimony.
We embarked on this study because we had a sense that the impacts of developing our oil and gas upon other sectors, such as the manufacturing, agricultural, and construction sectors and through them upon communities all across Canada, are very significant.
Mr. Smillie, your testimony this morning has certainly confirmed this. I'll just go back to something you said in your opening remarks. “These aren't just jobs in oil and gas; these are jobs that create jobs.”
You also highlighted, though, a number of challenges, such as training delivery, labour supply, and labour mobility. In economic action plan 2014 there are a number of measures to support the construction workforce, such as reaffirming the Canada jobs grant, the new Canadian apprentice loan, the employer EI top-up to apprentices and technical training, and the flexible apprenticeship delivery pilot.
I'm wondering how important these measures are for training, and in particular training in your industry, both now and in the future.