Sure, I'll jump in on that. I absolutely agree 100%.
As I mentioned, one of the reasons why we do have over 50% of our employees from northern aboriginal Saskatchewan is because of that homegrown training and the efforts undertaken there over a number of years. I think that is why we say it's a competitive advantage to us as a company: the loyalty and the retention rates. I agree with my colleague sitting there with you in Ottawa today that the retention rate is absolutely great.
We have great employers over in Fort McMurray. Sometimes the employees we fly in from southern Saskatchewan we lose to the oil sands, but when it comes to our northern aboriginal employees, they don't leave. They're close to home, they've been trained near home, and there's a loyalty, so that is a huge competitive advantage for us as a company.
I just wanted to speak also on the return on investment there, because we're taking individuals who may be below the poverty line, so they're drawing down on welfare and there's a negative productivity situation there for our country and for our province. When we train them, invest in them, and get them to a state of employment, they're then, in large part, middle class. They're contributing. There's positive productivity. So any investments made actually come back to Canada, come back to Saskatchewan, and come back to the company.
So any of the current initiatives mentioned by my colleague Pam Schwann here in terms of supporting the multi-party training plan, the Northern Career Quest ASEP-type programming, or those mentioned by my colleagues there, are absolutely worth the investment, because they pay themselves back very, very quickly, and the taxpayer I think appreciates that.