Thank you, Chair.
And thank you as well to the witnesses for being here.
I'd like to follow the angle of education, and in particular public policy on education. What our government is facing now, and what future governments will face, is the fact that we're on a trajectory of being a million workers short within this decade of the jobs that are available in this country. I know this is real, because I know it's real in certain regions of the country now, having travelled with the human resources committee and in speaking with employers and employees and unions and whatnot on the various sides.
When you reflect on what has happened over the last number of decades.... I remember when I was in elementary school we had a tech room in which there were tools, and there was the ability to find out whether you had the aptitude to do a skilled trade. It might not have been your choice eventually, but it was there and was available. They were available as well in the tech wing at Brantford Collegiate Institute, where I went to high school; it had a full tech wing—automotive, electrical, carpentry, you name it. For the most part, these are gone in Ontario, as far as I can see, at the elementary level, and we have put a focus on.... I'm as guilty as any, with four children—having graduated three of them with general BAs—who were not employable when they got into the workforce and who had to go back to a year of community college.
I'm painting the scenario for you. Is that progress? Is this the kind of thing we need to reinstitute—matching skills with the job sets that are available? If we're talking about the inequity question, as we are today, is it important? We all know how empowering education is at different levels. Not everyone is meant to be a university professor or a doctor, or, for that matter, a politician. Nonetheless, can I ask you your views on getting that right?