If you'll allow me to answer, I disagree slightly with the OECD studies, just because I know from experience that it's much easier to measure formal training. The Maritimes especially tend to do a lot of informal training. If you take the Island as an example, there is a lot of agriculture there. They're not going to send someone to a classroom to learn how to milk a cow; they're actually going to sit down and tell you. I grew up in a city, so I have no idea about what to do with a cow. They will explain it, and they take the time.
OECD studies are good for comparison, but it's hard for a small business person. We are five people here. You could go for training today and we would have to answer the phone. So it's really a different perspective.
I'm going to sound like a broken record, but you asked if there are ways to encourage employers to train older workers. Sure, cut payroll taxes if they spend that money for training. There was a program--the new hires program--a while ago that worked really well. It encouraged them to hire new people. Now, it would be the reverse of that, if that is possible. I'm sure you have more expertise than I do on that.
I want to answer the first question you asked, but in a different way. It's true that in Alberta there's a lot of negative unemployment. You have too many jobs and not enough people to fill them and so on. Recently, I was looking over Statistics Canada numbers, and surprisingly, Alberta has the lowest participation of women in the workforce. I said, no, no, no, they have it wrong. So I looked twice, and it's true. Apparently, Quebec has the highest participation of women in the labour force. The reason is very easy--it took me two pages to find it--the day care system.
There are factors in the market that work differently than just a job offer. The day care system in Quebec--and I'm not going to say whether it's good or bad, it's just the way it is--encourages women to go back to work much sooner after they have children. Alberta doesn't have that, and a lot of women still tend to stay at home. It was really surprising to see that the province that has all these great, well-paying jobs still can't motivate those people to come into the labour market.