Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to all our witnesses.
I represent a very large riding in northwestern British Columbia, in Skeena. It may be somewhat similar to the situation with Matawa and the Ring of Fire. There are a lot of prospects, in resource development in particular, and 35% to 40% of the population is first nations. A large proportion of that is young first nations, and too large a portion of that is unemployed.
I want to talk about this in a more holistic approach. We can talk about program funding and different aspects of how to get young aboriginal people to work and secured in work, but I want to talk about the whole person, because oftentimes the barrier that gets placed in front of young aboriginal people isn't that there isn't a job available somewhere but that there are steps and barriers in the way. I want to start with that as a principle.
Is any one of our witnesses today familiar with the cultural connections for aboriginal youth program?
Mr. Smith, you're nodding.
The challenge I have with the government is that when I talk to young first nations groups, they talk about how the funding is intermittent. There are programs that are set up and then cancelled. They get some effectiveness, they run for two years, the names are changed...there's a lot of uncertainty. They're asking for long, stable....
I think this connections program speaks to something you said just in the middle of your piece, Dawn, about the barriers, about when a young person has a job and moves, particularly from a small town into a camp life or into a city.
Can you talk about specifically what you find and what some programs can address in removing those barriers?