Thank you.
I'm going to have to speak quickly, then.
Before I get to our recommendations, I want to underscore Pamela's point about the pervasiveness of the skilled trades shortage across the economy. In the construction section alone, a skilled work shortage of 316,000 workers is anticipated by 2017, and that's up from 250,000 last year. When you consider that the overall workforce today is 1.1 million, that means we will need to replace over 30% of our workforce in the next eight years.
I think I'm getting down to the last minute, so I'm going to skip right to my recommendations.
The coalition is very concerned about the declining state of Canadian community colleges and technical institutions. Our industries rely heavily on these facilities. Our recommendations are that we extend the current federal knowledge infrastructure program for an additional five years, at a funding level of $1 billion annually, and abandon the current 70-30 university/college funding apportionment formula in favour of a more equitable distribution; and to increase federal research funding by 5% to support applied research, product development, and research commercialization at colleges and institutes.
The leadership that the federal government showed in the 2009 budget helped kick-start a number of overdue modernization projects at campuses across this country, but much more needs to be done. In 2008, the Association of Canadian Community Colleges reported an estimated $7.4 billion investment required in investment.
I'd like to finish on a personal note, if I can, in 30 seconds.
I'm a college grad from 42 years ago. If it had not been for the vision of the federal government in the 1960s in creating the capacity, and for a caring community, I wouldn't be sitting here in front of you today. I think it's very important for us to provide the same opportunity for many Canadians across Canada.
With that, I will close. Thank you.