Mr. Chair and committee members, thank you, first of all for your interest in the Helmets to Hardhats Canada program and for your public and financial support—public in the sense that it was the Prime Minister of Canada who actually launched this program 13 months ago in Edmonton, Alberta, with the financial support of a grant of $150,000 through Veterans Affairs Canada.
I thought I'd take the time I have to give a little bit more context, to and explanation of, the program. Hopefully, that will assist you with the questions you may have thereafter.
This program is modelled after the program of the same name in the United States. It has been active for 10 years now. We've simply replicated a lot of their successes here in the constituency of Canada.
It took a number of years to get the program set up in Canada. The reason for that was the governance that we wanted to put in place. This is a not-for-profit organization. It's incorporated under the Canada Corporations Act with a board of governors and bylaws, and we have it set up in such a way that the people who are the stakeholders do not have a majority over the program itself; it's a group of people coming together, including governments at all levels—provincially and federally—and people from the private sector, as well as unions and associations, such that nobody has dominion.
The niche of this program is the fact that we're offering an opportunity for a great career in the building and construction industry to men and women who have served or are currently serving in the Canadian Forces, and it's not just the career opportunity: it's the fact that we offer them the opportunity to become trained, skilled, and licensed within the trades as well. The bottom line for us is that it's not about finding our vets a job; it's about finding our vets a career. We're going to help any one of those who have helped our country, including those who have been injured in the line of duty.
Canadian veterans face three challenges, really, when they leave the Canadian Forces and try to enter into a career in the civilian world.
The first one—and I might be an example of this—is that many people join the military when they are quite young. As a result, when it comes time for them to leave the military, they really do not have the experience of writing a resumé, nor have they actually gone through a difficult job interview. When they joined the military, it was a very receiving audience.
Second, it's very difficult for someone in the military to translate their skills and qualifications into civilian terms that an employer would recognize.
Third, and perhaps most important, is the fact that given the nature of the military culture and the brotherhood of war, it's actually quite difficult for men and women who have served their country in uniform to find a cultural organizational fit that works with them and for them.
The value proposition that I'm putting forward to industry on behalf of all veterans of Canada is as follows: you're talking about a cadre of individuals who are highly dependable, loyal, and flexible. How many people at one moment could be reconstructing a country like Haiti after an earthquake, the next month going off to the Khyber Pass of Afghanistan and dealing with the Taliban to bring freedom and security so that girls can go to school, and then, the following summer, go to deal with the flooding in Manitoba? For all their good work, we then bring them here to Ottawa to serve on staff.
These men and women have the ability to learn. They have the ability to learn because the Canadian Forces is a learning environment. They learn how to learn within a classroom environment and to do distance learning on their own, using computers and using simulators. More importantly, not only do they learn how to learn, but they learn how to teach. Most of the teaching we provide in the Canadian Forces is done by people in uniform. What better way to learn than to teach, and what better way to master it than to share that with others?
I think you would all agree with me that people in the military are team players. This is a valuable quality when you look at what we do here in Canada, particularly in the construction industry. Not only are these people good followers, but they're also great leaders. Furthermore, they're used to dealing in dynamic situations and to multi-tasking. They have all the qualities of leadership within the civilian context.
The Conservative government, I will say, has blessed the Canadian Forces with the reinvigoration of our capitalization of the military, but most people who have spent a number of years in the military have learned to become very resourceful, because we have to look after our equipment and make sure that it operates when we need it most.
Furthermore, despite the business we're in, we're actually very safety conscious, which obviously is important in the construction industry.
Finally, the men and women who have served their country are proven. They have a background that's well documented by their performance reports. They have background security checks, which are very important in certain sectors of the industry, and obviously they have met medical and physical standards.
The program itself is all about matching that talent to the need in the Canadian construction industry. We are a team of four, all former military, and bilingual. We have a very simple system that provides a website where veterans who are interested in being part of this program register along with companies, contractors, and unions that subscribe to the notions of this program. In that way, we now have a matchmaking opportunity. That said, given the transition challenges that military people face, we provide counselling to those individuals to help them with that difficult transition.
We have some challenges in the program, one of which is just getting visibility. Being here today is very helpful for the program.
We ensure priority placements so that veterans come first in line when it comes to apprenticeships within the unions. We deal with every person case by case, because when you're dealing with mental illness or physical disability, you have to understand the context of their circumstances and the few limitations they may have to make sure there's a good fit.
Mr. Chair, that concludes my opening remarks.