As the board of directors of the Canada West Equipment Dealers Association, we've partnered with Canada East to create a charitable foundation to raise money to do things such as the $250,000 that's going to Olds College. When we started getting serious about addressing this issue, we were looking for one thing that would solve the problems, and we quickly realized it's a combination of things.
The first challenge we have is to get people into the programs that are there right now, because regional colleges are under funding challenges from their provincial governments, and the last thing we need is for them to cut the spaces because there's nobody going into the programs. It just makes the problem worse for us.
I would like to offer one solution—we're looking for one solution—but we're finding it's a combination of things. Maybe foreign recruitment is part of it, but it's certainly working with the colleges, it's putting money into scholarships, it's appearing before this committee to talk about tax credits for the purchases of tools, just to name a few. It's a pretty long list.
At every board meeting we have, our 13 directors in western Canada ask what we are doing to find techs and what we need to be doing as an association to get them into the program.