There were quite a few points raised.
Regarding the first nations, you're absolutely right. I don't have any up-to-date data on registrations by first nations. I don't think they code for that, at least not at the level that's publicly available.
There's a great fit there, because often first nations are in resource-based areas where there's demand for apprenticeship trades. A lot of work has been done in that area. I'm not an expert on the work, but there is an obvious fit between the two communities. I think that's an avenue for progress. While there has been a lot of work done, I really can't give you anything up to date on the situation.
You're right about the different incentives to get people into apprenticeship trades, but as I mentioned, in the year 2008, which was the cyclical peak, we had 98,000 new apprentices in Canada. Obviously the markets just aren't working in attracting people to these trades. Many of the trades are well-paying, so there's an incentive to get into the trades.
Certainly all those areas you mentioned are important: basic skills, the links to EI.
I want to mention, concerning the labour market projections, that it's extremely difficult to project where the demand will be by occupation. There is technological change going on all the time, and changes in wages, changes in major projects—it's very hard. We have the Canadian occupational projection system, which is done by Human Resources Canada; that's a starting point. But many people don't feel that it is very accurate, because it's so hard to predict the future. The Construction Sector Council did a lot of work on predicting demand for skilled trades in Alberta in the oil sands, and that was a really good project.
It is true that, as you point out, the government has cut back on sector councils. I think many of them will survive and hopefully will be more market-oriented and will be using the resources from the labour and business sectors to fund their activities more. That's the hope, but we will see what happens in that area.
I'll stop there.