We're finding in our employment integration committees, which we've been launching in the first year right now—we're focusing on the areas of Plan Nord, which is the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region as well as Côte-Nord, because there's a high demand there—that, as I said, getting them through adult education and vocational training can be the easiest part sometimes because it's a one-to-one learning process. Finding the employer willing to commit the time to make sure they integrate well and that they know the job.... For many first nations, language is a barrier, not only for the anglophone communities but often for the communities who speak their first language and French is still a second language.
There are cultural and social differences that hinder that, and we are working with employers to help them understand who our people are and what challenges they face, so that we don't see our people going all the way to being trained and then walking away when a first incident happens. No one's there to intervene the way they have in vocational training, so they leave and the employer doesn't know why.
There's the cost we put towards that person, and they might come back and say, well, I want to try this vocation now. They want to work, but we're seeing that we need to support them in employment integration so that they stay in the job, and in a job that they love, not a job where they're saying, well, my friends are going into construction. That's great, but does that person want to go into construction or did they want to use adult education as a vehicle to pursue post-secondary?