Changing the mentality of such an adversarial approach from business to labour would be helpful. I don't know if we'll ever quite get there, but big business represents a lot.
In Saskatchewan, the community of entrepreneurs is a community of small businesses. There are a lot of people, and we're so busy running our businesses and trying every day to keep our heads above water that there's not a lot of time to spend at forums like this. In terms of sitting at a table and working out ideas and programs, I'm certainly more than willing, but, again, there are limitations on your time and on your energy. Looking at what we're facing and us filling in on a daily basis, we can't get people in to do the work.
I was just actually reflecting on one of the programs we worked with to bring a disabled worker into our kitchen. I think the program was SEARCHs , and we've worked with them a few times. Eventually, we did need to let this individual go, because they only give a support system to train the person into the position. It got to a point where she was a fantastic little worker and we liked her—she was very pleasant—but she just couldn't keep up with the pace. We needed to have basically one or two other people there with her in order for her to do the job that normally one person could do. The business itself just cannot support that level of cost in order to keep such a disabled worker employed. If there were systems or if that subsidy, for example, were to be continued, she'd likely still be with us.
There are a lot of things like that. The fact that the trade school has a waiting list is beyond ridiculous to me. We don't have people to work in our industry...[Technical difficulty—Editor].... They want to get into it.