Finance committee  To some extent it is, but we've tried to partner with our local industries and say it is in their best interests. I will give you an example: aerospace. We have people working in aerospace who are teaching at the college on secondments, so we try to deal with it through secondmen

Finance committee  We are, very much so. In fact, we have seen quite a change with colleges in the last three to five years about who is attending, not just in Atlantic Canada. I would say the profile of the learners has changed substantively. We are now getting the honour students out of high scho

Finance committee  Do you want me to try?

Finance committee  Each of the community colleges works at several levels. One is that we take a look at the federal priorities for economic development. Then when we do our strategic planning, each community college looks at the economic development strategy of the province, and each province has

Finance committee  Yes. They're excellent programs and they have significant merit. Springboard is another group in the Atlantic region that just received federal funding from ACOA to do the very things you're talking about. So it's money very well spent, and it's a reinvestment in existing capital

Finance committee  Yes, most definitely.

Finance committee  I think it would be helpful. They've become part of that unrepresented group. Many of the colleges have started to put together transition programs. Just to give a personal example quickly, our college works with the high schools on the island. They identify kids who are underp

Finance committee  It is helping us, yes, and it's all part of our applied research agenda. I think every college can speak very specifically about how we've leveraged our capital equipment and resources and have made them available to industry so that they can either test new products or enhance t

Finance committee  There are two things. First, many of our programs do have a business element to them because a number of our graduates will go out and become self-employed. I would say that in about 65% or 70% of our programs, the students will develop a business plan, whether it's photography

Finance committee  I do. If I can wear another hat, I also sit on the national board of Junior Achievement. I've been involved with them for 20 years now, and I think they have some excellent financial literacy programs across all grade levels. I think they do a pretty good job. So we may want

Finance committee  No, I haven't.

Finance committee  Thank you. With regard to infrastructure, each of the colleges, not only in Atlantic Canada but nationally, has certain programs that are in greater demand, whether it's in health care or in some of the new emerging technologies--I've used the example of bioscience. It's college

Finance committee  I apologize, Mr. Chair. So we need equipment as well.

Finance committee  Thank you very much. I'll get right to my speaking points. We're obviously very pleased to be here today representing APCCC, which is a publicly funded consortium that comes together to identify common strategic goals and share resources and best practices, etc. We have five

Finance committee  Compared to universities, I think colleges get about 1% of the total research funding. Looking at the potential and our recent track record in applied research, from a policy perspective it might be helpful to review that.