Thank you for inviting PTI Group to make this presentation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.
I am director of aboriginal employment strategies with the PTI Group. I'd like to first provide you with a brief overview of PTI, who we are and what we do, as this provides an important context regarding our aboriginal engagement. Then I'd like to share our experiences working with ASETS in western Canada, identify some barriers, and finally, make some recommendations.
PTI was incorporated in 1977, in Peace River, Alberta, and stands for Peace Trailer Industries, and provides camp rental accommodations to the oil and gas industry in Alberta. Since then PTI has grown into one of the largest most remote site accommodation companies in Canada.
Based in Edmonton, Alberta, PTI Group is a publicly traded, vertically integrated remote site accommodation company. We design, manufacture, install, and operate over 18,000 remote site accommodation rooms in western and northern Canada, the United States, and Australia.
In Canada many of our facilities are located on first nations traditional lands. In many cases PTI Group must enter into aboriginal consultation with first nations and Métis groups for new site developments. Many of our customers have entered into impact benefit agreements with first nations and Métis, and in some cases there are contractual requirements that we engage aboriginal people, in whom our customers have an interest. Having good aboriginal relations is an important factor to our growth.
As we all know, aboriginal people are at the wrong end of many social indexes and I don't need to reiterate those details. Canada is facing a labour shortage in many industry sectors and in many regions of the country, especially in remote locations. We all know aboriginal people are the fastest growing segment of our population. Our collective goal is to harness this potential labour resource, thereby alleviating skill shortages.
Because of the nature of what we do and where we operate, PTI Group has unique opportunities to engage aboriginal people. We have employment opportunities at our corporate office in technical areas, such as engineering, electrical, mechanical, architectural, IT, management, and sales. At our factories we require carpenters, electricians, plumbers, general labourers. In our remote site accommodation facilities we require kitchen workers, housekeepers, and front-desk clerks. Overall, PTI aboriginal workforce participation rate has been as high as 9.8% and in some of our remote site facilities the rate is over 20% and growing.
We have forged excellent working relationships with many first nations and Métis groups to provide us with employees. We have close relationships with many ASETS holders and work very closely with their human resource and development training personnel. Since 2010, and in partnership with ASETS holders, PTI has hired over 500 aboriginal people and we have successfully delivered seven aboriginal camp cook programs involving 64 first nations and Métis participants. Thus far we have achieved an 84% graduation rate, with all the graduates attaining kitchen positions at PTI. Aboriginal Camp Cook 8 is planned for the summer of 2014 with an ASETS holder.
Working with Oteenow Employment and Training, the urban ASETS holder in Edmonton, we delivered an introduction to trades program in 2013. The graduates all obtained trade positions at our factories in Edmonton and a second program is planned for this year.
Through our direct recruitment with first nations and Métis, we have obtained a measure of success, and PTI Group is committed to building upon our successes by employing and training more aboriginal people. We are active participants with the Aboriginal Human Resource Council, using their services and products to industry to enhance aboriginal inclusion at PTI.
Over the past four years we have learned a number of lessons. Not all aboriginal people are ready for employment. Many lack basic literacy and numeracy skills. Many have never experienced the rigours of having full-time employment. Careful selection of employees is required and we heavily rely on ASETS holders to assist us with making the right selections.
Living and working in a remote site location away from family and friends and community has different workplace dynamics and stresses and challenges than a position where the employee is home every night. In the process we have identified a number of barriers to employment with some first nations people.
In our opinion, the major barrier is transportation from home to work or from their community to remote site locations. This became evident during our first aboriginal recruitment when we asked the applicants if they had a driver's licence. One half had licences and no vehicles, and the other half had vehicles and no licences. We realized we had a transportation barrier. But working with the ASETS holder we found a solution. In order to move aboriginal people from social assistance living on reserve to financial independence in an industrial setting, we need to build a bridge with each ASETS holder. Industry can only build part of that bridge and ASETS holders need to be involved.
As you well know, no two first nations are alike. Some are small. Some are large. Some are remote. Some are close to urban areas. Some are very successful and some are very, very poor. Therefore, the needs of each first nation are different and the bridge that I mention needs to be customized for every first nation. Industry can't build those aboriginal bridges to financial independence alone. Our experience is that when ASETS holders are working closely with us, retention rates go up. They help us make the right selections. They provide the necessary supports and encouragement after the person has been hired. There's ongoing dialogue to solve problems and overcome barriers, and they are providing transportation to the work site in order to keep the person employed.
Certainly, programs like ASETS need to be continued and enhanced. Without ASETS, hiring the number of aboriginal people we have would have been much more challenging for us, and we certainly would not have been able to run the training initiatives that we have undertaken thus far. Any new program needs to be flexible for ASETS holders and industry. Opportunities come and ASETS holders need to be able to respond quickly or the opportunity will pass them by. Commodity prices greatly affect resource extraction industries and although industry is planning many projects that potentially could employ thousands of people, a drop in the commodity prices may put a development on hold. ASETS holders may have to readjust their work plan quickly.
We have encountered severe literacy issues in some communities and in some cases many individuals can't read a safety exam. They are willing to work. They are ready to work. We would like to hire them but they're unable to work. We cannot hire someone who cannot read or fails a safety exam. Literacy in first nation communities is not the responsibility of industry, but is rather a barrier for first nations to move their members from social assistance to financial independence.
Funding needs to be flexible as no two first nations are the same. The funding model should be flexible enough to be able to address the particular barriers of that community and to seize upon the industry opportunities that are available in their region. In our case, there are ongoing activities by the ASETS holders to keep their members working, to provide a source of contact for us, ensuring transportation arrangements have been made, and helping the individuals in times of crisis. These are but a few examples. All of these aftercare support services to keep people employed come at a cost to the ASETS holder.