Finance committee  We just started our new fiscal year on April 1, and our plan is to help 700 people through the course of this coming year.

Finance committee  That is correct.

Finance committee  Absolutely, we couldn't do what we do without industry support. We are a self-sustaining social enterprise. We are neither government funded nor are we a charity. We could not help the people we help without the funding that comes from the private sector and from industry.

Finance committee  We could easily double our numbers—

Finance committee  —and we tell our partners that every time we visit.

Finance committee  We showed that back in 2010-11 when the Government of Ontario increased their number of interns from about 50 or 75 a year to 262, with the help of federal funding that year. That was easily within our capacity to do.

Finance committee  It's young people, aboriginals included, but basically what we do and what we have learned is about matching education and skill sets to jobs and careers. Some of what Mr. Adler referred to—movie-theatre jobs and whatever—are not careers. Those are just survival jobs, or part-tim

Finance committee  This is one of the objections that I hear quite often when I speak with employers, and governments—municipal, federal, and provincial—are employers. Freezes and head-count issues are a reality, and in some ways, what we are suggesting actually helps both sides in that the governm

Finance committee  Basically this is a result of what we found in terms of part-time workers and what I referred to as the queueing effect, as economists call it. The unemployment rates exclude individuals who are not working but who are sufficiently active in their job search, so they are consider

Finance committee  I worked at York University before coming to this position, or at least on my road here. I saw students graduate side by side, people like Noel and me—a huge age difference here, but nevertheless—and I would graduate with a self-declared disability and Noel would graduate without

Finance committee  We've not measured that. What we've measured is a private sector jump, especially, again, when we work with government. The Government of Ontario has asked us to look at how many of the folks who don't stay with the government end up in the private sector, and a huge majority end

Finance committee  The first question is about whether that number has always been the same or whether it has changed. It has relatively always been the same. Where it varies is from sector to sector. For example, I cited that the Government of Ontario has hired 700 interns since 2004. Their rete

Finance committee  Thank you. Absolutely, it is part of my recommendation. We are a very strong advocate for paid internships. We believe that the enforcement of the Employment Standards Act is the right thing to do to prevent the exploitation of youth. We've gone on record as saying that. We be

Finance committee  Absolutely. I think we all know the demographics and the fact that pretty soon all of us baby boomers will be retiring. This is about helping what we do, and what you're talking about, Mr. Brison. It's about launching people's careers sooner and turning them into taxpayers instea

Finance committee  I am familiar with it. It's a positive step and we'll be working with the government to see how to make that work.