From a social and an economic point of view, everybody should be allowed the chance to work. To be able to feed your family is a matter of pride, and from the economic side, to contribute to society.
We are finding that if you provide the training for people to be able to contribute to society, to develop skills, then you are able to motivate people to be part of society and be engaged.
Let me give you a very neat example that was done in Yukon. A company needed truck drivers. Many companies need them. Unfortunately, the truck drivers came from the south. There was a big turnover, and they had to start training again. They decided to do a pilot project for 15 individuals who were living in the north and go to their community, so the students wouldn't have to go far from their community. The training was provided on site, and the company said right at the beginning that they were going to recruit 10 people if they were successful in the program.
They were so impressed with the way the students worked that they decided to recruit 12 of them. They said to the three others—all 15 were very successful in the program—that it was a matter of weeks or months before they would be recruiting them. They wanted to have another program similar to that.
The reason I give this example is that this is what is important very often with aboriginal communities, to offer the program, the training, on site. That's why some of our colleges.... There may be one college in a territory, but they have 25 learning centres to ensure training is happening in the community.
It motivates people. They realize that not only did they stay in their community and acquire new skills, but now they're able to sustain themselves and bring money to the family also.
We have many examples like that across Canada, and they have been very successful. It's important to recognize the importance of doing things like that. Sometimes it's difficult because there aren't a large number of people and sometimes people are not sure what skills they would like to have. That's why I mentioned the mobile trades training centres in my presentation, which circulate in different communities to entice people to discover the different trades. Hopefully, it will stimulate their passion for one of those trades.