Evidence of meeting #17 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was colleges.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Vice-President, Corporate Social Responsability, Cameco Corporation
I agree with that. Of the 1,600 employees we got from northern Saskatchewan, only a handful have left. They prefer to stay in their home communities.
Conservative
Joe Daniel Conservative Don Valley East, ON
Given the fiscal constraints that we're under because of the economy and the world situation, if you were to prioritize a set of non-monetary changes to encourage private sector participation in the development of remote communities, what would they be? What would be your top three?
Vice-President, Corporate Social Responsability, Cameco Corporation
That's a tough question, certainly controversial in recent political debate across this country. We're confronted as a corporation with the funding challenges that the schools have.
Certainly comparability in funding is probably the biggest issue. Now, outside of that is the relationship-building that we have, and there are successes in these communities—some of their post-secondary education programs, technical training programs. We actually partner with them and leverage cooperation and best efforts to make these work, and programs like the ASEP program have been outstanding.
But it's a tough one to answer, because the lack of comparable funding for basically the K-to-12 system stares you in the face in the communities.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
Your time is up.
Ms. Radbourne, did you want to make a comment on that? If you do, could you make it brief?
Executive Director, Moose Cree First Nation; Board Member, SIBI Employment and Training
I had a comment, but it slipped my mind, so it must not have been that great.
Conservative
NDP
Manon Perreault NDP Montcalm, QC
Good afternoon. I want to thank you for joining us.
Very few women hold non-traditional jobs, but I think we should still spend some time on this topic.
What is the biggest obstacle faced by women who want to work in your field?
Executive Director, Moose Cree First Nation; Board Member, SIBI Employment and Training
For women, the main issue is camp life and being away from their family and children. With our project, it's three weeks working at the camp and one week off. That's very difficult for our women, when many young women start having families often by the age of 18. That's a difficult thing to ask.
NDP
Manon Perreault NDP Montcalm, QC
Thank you.
Do you feel that child care services could have an effect on women's participation in those training activities?
Executive Director, Moose Cree First Nation; Board Member, SIBI Employment and Training
I think our day care service could always be improved. The project is actually at a remote site, so the day care wouldn't really be relevant. They're going to be away for 21 days in a row, so it would be hard to find a day care provider to leave their child with for 21 days. How people do it currently is with other family members. When they're working, they leave their children with other family members.
NDP
Manon Perreault NDP Montcalm, QC
I want to discuss the programs you mentioned earlier, as far as employment preparation goes. You talked about one such program. I was wondering whether the government could play a role in encouraging people to get more involved in their training.
Executive Director, Moose Cree First Nation; Board Member, SIBI Employment and Training
Oh, definitely. This, to me, is everyone's job in the community, and the government's as well, to encourage people right from the start to complete their grade 12. That will make their future training in life much easier. The best success for individual training plans is when people actually see that end job. That's when they stick to achieving it. When they see other people achieving those jobs with the employer, that motivates them to stay committed to the plan.
NDP
Manon Perreault NDP Montcalm, QC
Do women attend those training sessions? Are there any women involved?
Executive Director, Moose Cree First Nation; Board Member, SIBI Employment and Training
Yes, we've had two women carpenters. I don't have any women rodbusters. I have a few women in the quality assurance department. There is a smattering of women, but not large numbers. I would like to see more.
Vice-President, Corporate Social Responsability, Cameco Corporation
I'll just make a comment there. We do have quite a few women in our training programs from underground mining: heavy equipment operators, truck drivers. They're really breaking the mould by entering these jobs, which were male-dominated in the past.
With respect to the day care question, it can be extremely valuable, because there is a lack of day care spaces in the communities, and at the sites as well. It's a bit challenging when it's an industrial site.
If I could just finish with this on day care, when a mother has a baby at a hospital in an urban centre, if they go back home to a reserve or a remote community, usually no health professionals see that child until that child is in school. So any developmental delays really compound over x number of years, because there are no early childhood development head start programs in virtually any northern first nation communities.
NDP
Manon Perreault NDP Montcalm, QC
We talked about people dropping out of training programs. Are there currently any incentives for encouraging instructors to find ways to help people finish their program, their studies?
Vice-President, Corporate Social Responsability, Cameco Corporation
Some of the schools are pretty innovative. I've heard discussion of going to a three-semester system, so you would have September to January, January to April or May, and then a summer one. The loss of time, by having that summer break, can compound some of the second-language issues and learning retention rates.
There are a lot of night classes being offered to alleviate some of the overcrowding during the day. But that does lead to high burnout of teachers and of the school system itself. The facility takes on a lot more wear and tear.
But there are some creative and innovative undertakings being done by a lot of the communities to address some of these challenges.
December 6th, 2011 / 4:10 p.m.
Conservative
Phil McColeman Conservative Brant, ON
Thank you for being here.
I just want to clarify with you some of the numbers, Mr. Merasty. You said in your remarks that the population of northern Saskatchewan is around 40,000. Is that correct? You mentioned that 86% of that population is first nations and Métis. Then of that, 30% are actually in the workforce. Just kind of doing the math on that, you're saying that currently there are 18,000 job openings. Is that correct?
Vice-President, Corporate Social Responsability, Cameco Corporation
Yes, throughout Saskatchewan, not just in the north.
Conservative
Phil McColeman Conservative Brant, ON
Not just the north. Okay. I wanted to clarify that.
You alluded to—and I didn't write them down—the numbers of individuals under the age of 25. You broke it down that way for us. Do you see the actual numbers of people living in the north being able to fill the needs of the jobs in the north, if it were a perfect environment where everyone is up to speed on their education, has their grade 12, is into the trades, as many as you need? Or do you see a need for bringing workers in to meet the need?
Vice-President, Corporate Social Responsability, Cameco Corporation
Let me put it this way. There are 40,000 in the north. Some 50% of them are under the age of 18, so that leaves 20,000. And 50% of them don't have grade 12, so that leaves 10,000. There are currently about 9,000 employed; that leaves 1,000 for us to go after who have grade 12. And we're competing with other industry, band offices, public service providers, health services, and so on and so forth.
The important number is that 50% who don't have grade 12. Investments in that population, which are significant and targeted to employment, could lead to our addressing the biggest chunk of employment growth we see in the north. Next year we're hiring approximately 400 people. But there are only 125 graduates, I think, and this is from some work we had commissioned. There are only 125 grade 12 graduates coming out from the high schools. So we're seeing a gap.
But the real opportunity is in those people who drop out, who don't have a grade 12. They're willing to work, but they're having a tough time breaking in.
Conservative
Phil McColeman Conservative Brant, ON
I want to compliment you on the successes you've had with the funding you've been able to utilize, because they're very impressive. It's the kind of thing that often you don't hear about, that level of success, when you're doubling the actual goals you set for yourself.
Ms. Radbourne, I just want to validate what I think I heard you mention in part of your comments. I believe you said that in bringing people through the apprenticeship programs you faced barriers with what I would call bureaucracy--so governments--and I'm not saying that was federal, provincial, or municipal. I don't know.
You mentioned that as you tried to bring people through, one of your frustrations was the fact that.... I think you might have alluded to people changing in their roles, different new people, and people interpreting things differently. Could you expand on that a bit for us?
Executive Director, Moose Cree First Nation; Board Member, SIBI Employment and Training
Being rural, we don't have one office to deal with, so oftentimes.... In this case, it's regarding unions and apprenticeship registration. Because we're dealing with union halls that are from a number of different areas, we also have to deal with the apprenticeship registration officers from the province, from those different urban cities. And yes, there are differences. Although there's one government, and you would think one policy and standard on how things should work, there are differences that are very frustrating.