I think it's a two-pronged issue. One of the issues is the fact that the Government of Canada is asking businesses to have more participation and engagement with aboriginal peoples. Our experience has been that, yes, it's true that executive management has stepped up, and yes, it's true that human resources have stepped up, but when you come down to the operational level, this is where it's lacking. There are issues around how we can address this through sustainable procurement policies, especially when large government contracts are being handed out with the whole-of-government approach. HRSDC is aligning their objectives with aboriginal affairs and aboriginal affairs are aligning their objectives with PWGSC and that's a great place to start because then you can influence business into engaging with aboriginal peoples.
The other issue is the fact that there's no management layer in corporate Canada. By this I mean an operational management layer, not the vapour trails that we see right now with the appointment of aboriginal leadership to the boardrooms. It seems that the influence has always been down at the entry-level position skill level. At the management level, where the buying and hiring is being made, there's no aboriginal representation there. That's because a lot of aboriginal people decided to take careers in the public sector, at least on a professional level. That's what we were encouraged to do. That's the natural step that we took. I'm born out of the private sector. I'm one of the few aboriginal people that actually decided to take this path. The way I took that path, I didn't recognize my aboriginal heritage. Only when I started recognizing my aboriginal heritage did I start seeing issues of systemic racism within business units. That's one of the issues.
The other issue is the fact that when it comes down to the business unit, and rightfully so, their focus is on delivery—meeting their project objectives. When you're looking at an aboriginal person trying to transfer their career from public sector to private sector and you have businesses that don't recognize that experience, it becomes very hard to convince them the person has transferrable skills. This is where we've been working with private industry in trying to get them to recognize that a policy analyst is much like a business analyst. No matter how you slice it, those are transferable skills in project management.
Finally, the last thing I'd like to talk about is the fact that if we look at the demographic that are returning to school, it is aboriginal women that are returning back to school. A lot of them are going back for a second career. This is a second career for them or even a third career for them. Yes, child care support is a very big issue and they have to have that child care support and the educational support that's associated with it. I don't want to comment on how these programs should be delivered; I'm a businessman by trade.
Jerry, if you could add a few words on the way these programs work....