There are a number of other training funds that the federal government cut back. The cutbacks amounted to more than $10 billion in terms of skills training. Right now, we have a skills shortage in Canada. You talked about skills shortages. For example, we know that even on P.E.I., by 2010 the total population growth on P.E.I., with immigration, will be 2,031. And that's on P.E.I., which is probably not known for having a lot of immigration currently.
We need some strong national programs to invest in what we see as national priorities. I know I presented a brief about seven or eight years ago to a panel on P.E.I. about skills shortages. This was from the labour movement on the whole. We talked about how there were going to be skills shortages in health care and in the trades. At that point in time, most of the money was geared towards shiny new areas, not to these other areas. Now we have these shortages in those areas. I think we need some really long-term, consistent planning on a pan-Canadian basis in terms of skills, which is also targeted towards those people who are excluded. P.E.I. has the highest participation rate of women in the workforce currently.
The federal Liberal government took modest steps by putting $25 million over three years into a training centre infrastructure plan. They put more money into the national industry secretariat and the workplace skills strategy. All those things, and also the LMPA, are all positive steps.