Thank you, witnesses, for being here today.
All three of you mention mobility, in slightly different contexts, as being one of the larger issues here. It resonates with me as someone who owned a construction company for 25 years and was also president of the Ontario Home Builders' Association in the mid-1990s, because the mobility barrier is actually between provinces. For example, right here in Ottawa with Quebec next door, an Ottawa contractor is not allowed to go work in Quebec, yet the reverse is allowed. A Quebec contractor can come into Ottawa and work but Quebec does not allow anyone from outside the province. I often use the example of an electrical company here in Ottawa that employs some 200 people. It wants to bid on contracts in Quebec but it cannot do that. That's one mobility problem that needs to be solved within the industry itself, because Quebec has rules regarding closing out other people and contractors.
The other mobility problem is, as you have articulated, the transferability of training from one province to another. I can tell you about many good employees who come from other parts of the country into companies in Ontario and actually have to start all over again, even if they are partway through. I believe we need a very pragmatic solution to that problem as well.
Ms. Huziak, you mentioned that young people are ready and willing, and they want to get involved. Are they mobile? Will they go to parts of the country where they can get out of whatever form of transportation they have taken and have a job within the first two days of being there? There are parts of the country where that can happen.