First of all, merci. I appreciate the compliment on my French, but I don't know that it's quite that good.
Secondly, Saskatchewan really is a good example of how we can work better with the aboriginal community. On the one hand, you have a booming economy, a very exciting economy. It's an economy where, to a large degree, jobs are being created in remote rural areas. Obviously you've got big mining operations in the north, companies like Cameco and others. On the other hand, you have a very large aboriginal population that really has not enjoyed the fruits of that boom to the degree it could. I see that as a terrific opportunity. That's where programs like ASEP are so important.
In fact, we just announced a number of new ASEP projects in northern Saskatchewan, and the importance of these can't be overstated. I've met a number of people who've been through these programs. It's no exaggeration to say that these programs are life changing for the people who get that kind of support.
I think an important thing for this committee to note is that one of the reasons for that success is that when companies go into this program, they, along with the federal government, work with aboriginal people toward getting them the training for very particular jobs that have wages attached to them, so they know that when they graduate they will actually step into those jobs. In stepping into those jobs--these are typically very well-paying jobs--they'll be able to support themselves and their families and really, in many cases, be role models in their communities.
This is a program that works well, and I think we need to try to replicate some of the lessons from that and from some of the other aboriginal programming, but really, a lot of our programming in general. I would welcome this committee's views and insights on that when it comes to your report on poverty.