Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank our witnesses for their highly valuable input.
I want to begin with the representatives from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
I will start with a little context. A few years ago, even before I was elected as an MP, I visited a textile factory in the Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie riding, as the NDP candidate. Knowing that the factory would soon be closing, people who had worked there for 20 or 25 years told me they had no idea what they were going to do. They hadn't received any skills training during their careers. All they knew how to do was make suits. Their only prospect was probably to depend on social assistance until they turned 65.
All that to say how important I think it is to introduce ongoing skills training programs. Ms. Jaworski talked about that. Your survey on specialized training, however, revealed that only 9% of your members had taken measures to retain older employees. That isn't very much.
Do you think businesses should do more as far as ongoing employee training goes? If not, should we start, as of now, allocating more public resources to the targeted initiative for older workers?