Thank you.
On behalf of CCATEC's board and directors, it's a pleasure to be here this morning presenting in front of the standing committee.
I've been asked to talk today about best practices, opportunities in our region, some success stories, what's working and what's not, and the help required.
As some background on CCATEC and our best practices, we've been delivering aboriginal programs for over 20 years. With these years of experience, we've been able to respond to the needs of first nations and of the labour market within our region. Services are provided to unemployed aboriginal people living in the Cariboo Chilcotin. We're centralized in B.C. I've attached in our packages for you a marketing package that lists our programs and services so I won't go into detail. Further on, you may have questions in regard to that.
We have long-term directors on our board with various skill sets who are well-informed about our programs and services. Accountability...we're very accountable. Over and above our ASETS requirements, we hold annual community forums with our first nation communities and we report on our activities and our program funds. All aboriginal leadership are invited and we also share this report with our program partners. I've brought a sample of one of our reports for you to also take a look at for your information.
We have good accounting financial practices in order. We've also recently received a quality assurance monitor from Ottawa and we receive high praise for our program file management and for our internal controls. We have the ability to leverage funds from various service providers and various funders.
At CCATEC we share our resources with other ASETS across Canada, such as our business plans, our operational plans, and our internal forums. CCATEC is a member of the First Nations Human Resource Labour Council in British Columbia and we also sit at the technical working group here at the Assembly of First Nations.
As for some of the opportunities in the Cariboo Chilcotin, we're very resource-based with mining, tourism, forestry, and agriculture. We have a great need for trades, labourers, environmental monitors, business providers, administration services, health, and...in all areas. It used to be that there weren't a lot of opportunities for aboriginal people in remote and rural areas aside from band administration. But now with the burst of economic development in the resource industry, there's a wealth of opportunity for us in the Cariboo Chilcotin region.
Employers are coming to us and want to hire aboriginal people as opposed to importing workers from other places. They're seeking good job referrals from our ASETS at CCATEC office. We've implemented a new tracking system, ARMS, and now we can link the employer directly to the client.
Some of our success stories—we've had the ability to design and deliver results-based programming in partnership with local employers, public and private training agencies. That allows us to respond to the real labour market need. I'm just going to share a few of our success stories with you today. We recently designed a sawmill program in partnership with the Tolko sawmill, West Fraser plywood plant, and the Williams Lake pellet plant. We hired a training agency to deliver the program. As a result, we had six real jobs out of the 12 people finishing. We've incorporated cultural components into all our mainstream programs, thus making the program more attractive and highly successful.
We hold cross-cultural workshops. One specifically was for the Gibraltar Taseko mine and we opened one to the city of Williams Lake, with Mount Polley, Horton Ventures, and the RCMP all in attendance.
We recently just completed an early childhood diploma program with 15 of the 16 employed. Many of them are employed at our day cares on reserve, which is critical. Some of the long-term jobs have been secured. Seven years ago, we ran a women's job readiness program. One of the ladies received a job at the 7-Eleven. It was an entry-level position. Seven years later, she is a day manager at the 7-Eleven. When I go in there, I still see her and she thanks CCATEC for that opportunity.
Another real good success story is that we ran an office assistant program five years ago. The young lady received a job at an employment agency and she's still employed, so the long-term employment is critical for our aboriginal people.
We continue to support trades. We have one fellow who is in his third year of electrical and he looks forward to finishing next year. We still struggle with our trades opportunities in our region.
CCATEC receives a small budget of $2.2 million annually. In 2013, we provided skill development to 1,396 aboriginal people who participated in these skill development programs.
We secured 413 jobs for our small region. Many were part time and seasonal, but we did receive some full-time jobs. We had 199 return to school also with our summer student program. This demonstrates cost effectiveness with the limited budget we do have. We're competent in monitoring systems and follow-up and that has resulted in higher success in completion rates and return to employment.
Among the things we see that are not working is the federal government contracting with other groups under the skills partnership fund that are in essence duplicating the work of the ASETS agreement holder. This creates a lot of confusion for the clients and employers.
In Williams Lake there's probably a population of 15,000, and 30,000 with the surrounding area. We have a skills partnership across the street from us, and the clients are often coming in asking what's what. Employers are also asking who they should work with for the aboriginal communities. The reporting guidelines under the skills partnership fund are nowhere near as rigorous as the ASETS reporting guidelines, and it's frustrating to see the difference in accountability.
The labour market agreement has not been favourable for aboriginal people in British Columbia, as the aboriginal training dollars seem to be awarded to the colleges and the universities. Client assessments are not being completed on the labour market agreement clients, resulting in clients coming to our agency, as they're losing their income supports from employment insurance and social assistance. There seems to be no holistic approach with those assessments.
Also not working are partnerships with the province and the labour market agreement holders. The reporting burden has exhausted our staff, with ongoing requests for additional information and ongoing requests for the same information in different reports. Also the labour market agreement funds do not cover administration.
We're finding if difficult to meet targets with a 1996 budget with increased tuition, wages, and just the general cost of living.
What's working? CCATEC is successful, and I'm very proud to work with this organization. Our board and our staff and our communities are accountable and cost effective, with really good results. The support of our first nations is also working locally, provincially, and nationally, as is our ability to provide flexible programming that leads to employment. We thank the federal government for that opportunity.
Multi-year funding has provided long-term planning and delivery. Our board goes into planning every second year. We plan for our budget and the activities we're going to undertake based on the labour market need.
We're working with other ASETS agreement holders on common interests, such as a technical working group and the First Nations Human Resource Labour Council. Communities, employers, and aboriginal organizations support our ASETS and want to see us continue.
We're able to meet employment targets on a stretched budget, and we've established really good partnerships.
Help is needed. A 10-year strategy would be great, enabling ASETS holders to focus on the aboriginal employment needs, increasing the participation in the labour market. We need more help to develop strong essential skills and trades programming. Grade 12 and driver's licences are the two number-one barriers for the Cariboo Chilcotin.
We need capacity development with more interaction with federal staff at the local and regional level via ASETS workshops and information sharing. For example, we recently received the NARAM survey from HRSDC in Ottawa. Many of the ASETS as well as CCATEC do not have the capacity to undertake these tasks.
Business and operational plans need more support from regional staff, such as having regional meetings with ASETS holders to review. We used to have those meetings on a regular basis. This would eliminate unnecessary calls to HRSDC.
An administration budget that would be separate from the current program budget would be great. The child care budget needs to be increased to include off-reserve children. Urban funds need to be increased, as some aboriginal people are moving to the urban centres.
In closing, I'd really like to thank you for this opportunity to present the work that CCATEC is doing in the Cariboo Chilcotin.