Human Resources committee  I'll give you my four suggestions. One, there is a federal government tax credit of 10% for employers. I would suggest that has been moderately successful. There may be ways to improve that, for example, by increasing the tax credit or expanding it to apprentices. It's limited r

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much. I completely agree with your point. I haven't looked lately, but I think the average age of an apprentice in New Brunswick is 26, and the average age of an apprentice across Canada is 27 or 28. There's certainly a gap between the ages of about 18 up to 26 or

Human Resources committee  Again, I have a couple of comments. Earlier someone mentioned the urban myth. My experience is that apprentices who are having issues with EI are most likely to connect with me in my province, or with their parliamentary representative whether it is provincial or federal. Based

Human Resources committee  It's a great question. I'll make just a couple of comments. Recently our board chair of the Apprenticeship and Occupational Certification Board in New Brunswick did send a letter to some of the folks responsible for EI around apprenticeship. One of the suggestions was a dedicate

Human Resources committee  I would say that the short answer would be yes. In New Brunswick there is a requirement that, where applicable, government tenders for construction have apprentices as 10% of the workforce. So yes, that is a great idea and that has been implemented in New Brunswick in terms of pu

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just a couple of comments on that one. I would say one of our most successful partnerships is with the New Brunswick Building Trades Council and the Building and Construction Trades Department, which is generally made up of the unionized construction

Human Resources committee  I'll just mention comments that are very similar to Mr. Ritter's in Saskatchewan, based on our experience. We do have some examples of where we have offered training in the first nations community. There's a couple of key things in terms of success. If there is a vibrant econom

Human Resources committee  Yes, please. I have just two comments, Mr. Chair. It's an excellent question. You outlined the people involved: the teachers, the parents, and the guidance counsellors. There are two ways in terms of addressing this because they are the influencers over apprentices or potential

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. With regard to learning disabilities, as I mentioned, there are new positions in New Brunswick for learning strategists, people who help apprentices who have some learning disabilities. Whether you are a university or college student, there is a labor

Human Resources committee  With regard to women, I believe that the culture amongst employers is going to have to change significantly, particularly in the construction field. I think there are some pretty big challenges that must be met there. Employers need to be made aware of the situation of women. A b

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, members. I'll start where I left off last time. I think I was about 90 seconds into my remarks. I'll try to keep my opening statement to about seven minutes. Unfortunately, we have come to call the apprenticeship progr

Human Resources committee  Thank you again, Mr. Chair. I'm now speaking on behalf of New Brunswick. I've left copies of my statements here as well, in both French and English. The title of the brief is, “Counting Past Five: Apprenticeship in New Brunswick” and we talk about how many trades someone can nam

Human Resources committee  I think that question should be put to the federal government. But I do know that Ms. Watts-Rynard can provide you with more information. I believe most of the provinces and territories now belong to the forum and genuinely support its work.

Human Resources committee  I think you're right. I would say anecdotally that EI issues are the number one complaint of apprentices dealing with apprentice authorities across the country. There's a combination of factors. One is that apprentices don't necessarily know what they're supposed to do. Employers

Human Resources committee  I'll give you two comments on that. This is a bit of my New Brunswick perspective, but one thing we're finding is that people are quite interested in what I call the popular trades. If I ask the group here to name five trades, my guess is you'll tell me carpenter, plumber, elec