Mr. Speaker, that is a great question. I compliment my colleague in taking the initiative to put this in his householder four times a year so that parents will read it and maybe give some hope to their kids.
I think it is very important to have a team approach, a family approach, when one is graduating from high school and going into the workforce. What do we want to see our kids do, and what do our kids want to accomplish?
When I was going to school, it was “I am not sure what you're going to take, but go to university”. Everyone wanted to go to university.
Now when kids graduate, they have so many options that pay so well, depending on what field they want to go into. If they want to be a welder, they can make $100,000 plus a year. If they want to be a pipefitter, they can make $100,000 a year. They can work in a variety of occupations that are skilled and where apprenticeships and journeyships are required, and they can go through the process starting in high school in some cases. They can get well-paid jobs in those fields because there is such a high demand for those skills.
Parents can now tell their kids that they have opportunities and ask where they would like to have a career. As they sit down with their kids and talk about that, they can talk about whether they like working outdoors or indoors, whether they want to be in an office or outside. They can look at a variety of different aspects to find something that has a huge demand in Canada, and they can fill that demand.
Again, we have a lot more options, and I think parents are taking a more broadened approach. They are looking at the big picture. They are thinking that it is not just a university degree anymore, but that maybe a plumber or electrician might be a good career path. Those types of things are options that I think parents are sitting down and talking to their kids about, and I think that in the end everyone will be a winner.