Finance Committee on April 8th, 2014

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Cullen.

I'm going to take the last round.

I wanted to start with you, Mr. Gouda, and with your organization's efforts on internships. I'm a huge fan of internship programs. I benefited from something similar myself when I was a young person. I have an intern here in the room. I've had about 20 as a member of Parliament, and it's amazing to see their energy and their intelligence. You get so proud seeing all the varying aspects of the different careers they go on to.

I just wanted to ask you about how many interns you have a year. Is it roughly 1,100?

[Naguib Gouda]

We just started our new fiscal year on April 1, and our plan is to help 700 people through the course of this coming year.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay. And you've done 12,000 since 1996?

[Naguib Gouda]

That is correct.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

One of the biggest complaints I get from industry people today is that there are not enough people with skills of all types—and they often say young people with skills—so they say the government should invest more money, which I think is a valid point for them to make, but then I ask them how much they are investing in training young people. On your website, you have some companies that are partners, but are you satisfied with industry support for your organization?

[Naguib Gouda]

Absolutely, we couldn't do what we do without industry support. We are a self-sustaining social enterprise. We are neither government funded nor are we a charity. We could not help the people we help without the funding that comes from the private sector and from industry.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

If you had more support from the private sector, how many interns could you place a year?

[Naguib Gouda]

We could easily double our numbers—

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

You could double your numbers?

[Naguib Gouda]

—and we tell our partners that every time we visit.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay. You would have the capacity to double your numbers?

[Naguib Gouda]

We showed that back in 2010-11 when the Government of Ontario increased their number of interns from about 50 or 75 a year to 262, with the help of federal funding that year. That was easily within our capacity to do.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay. I appreciate that very much.

I'm going to move now to you, Dawn. I have the brochures here that you have for your program.

ASAP is a different program compared to the ASETS program. Just explain the difference for us and why it is a different program.

[Beedahbin (Dawn) Desmoulin]

ASETS is the aboriginal skills and employment and training services, right? We were able to submit a proposal to MTCU. We actually received funding through MTCU. They partnered with KKETS.

We've developed a program that's assisting clients who are early school leavers, high school dropouts, and college dropouts to come back, get upgraded, work on their grade 12 English and math, those senior credits, and then move on to additional training. It's about attaining your OSSD, getting your post-secondary requirements, and then moving on to industrial training.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

So this is a different type of training, though, than ASETS would provide?

[Beedahbin (Dawn) Desmoulin]

Yes. It's all under that same umbrella, actually. We all fall under KKETS.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

But this is a fairly unique program that you have developed in your area.

[Beedahbin (Dawn) Desmoulin]

Yes, from Matawa.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Is it being modelled across the country? Is this something we should look at?

[Beedahbin (Dawn) Desmoulin]

This is a pilot. This was developed in 2012, so it's fairly new. It has actually gone through its first pilot and it's now....

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

I think you had the first graduating class this year. Is that correct? Or is it the second?

[Beedahbin (Dawn) Desmoulin]

This is the second graduating class. We were able to see 18 to 20, I believe, in the first round of intakes on October 29, 2012. This year, we ended up seeing another 48. So altogether there are 63, I believe.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Break down your funding for the pilot for me, just in general proportions. Does industry support the pilot?

[Beedahbin (Dawn) Desmoulin]

No. Actually, it's funded through the province through MCTU. Dollars were also matched with KKETS, so the training portions of that program were funded through Service Canada through our ASETS program.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay. So there's no industry support currently for that, though?