Various studies are still being done around what it would cost, but I know we have examples of especially workplace-related skill upgrading that is not that expensive.
When you're dealing with your communities, you have a little further to go. A lot of your people are perhaps at level one literacy rather than at level two. That would take longer, obviously. You're changing culture as well, from an oral tradition to a written tradition. This is going to take time.
However, predominantly in the workforce across Canada, people are at what we would call level two literacy for the most part, if they have a shortage of skill. That can be corrected with as little as 25 hours of upgrading classes through a workplace environment.
What is really important is that the training is embedded in other training. It doesn't have to be.... You don't go to somebody and say, “You know, you have a problem. You can't read”. That is just going to put people's backs up. It's going to make it really hard. However, you can say, “Let me help you to become better in your job. Let me help you figure out how to change the way you work.” Then, embed that literacy and numeracy training in training that is directly related to the job at hand.
That can be done. We know how to do that. We know how to develop the curriculum, to deliver that curriculum. For the most part, we bring people over that hump into that fluid capacity in as little as 25 hours of training. The Canada job grant could be very useful in that.