Human Resources Committee on March 27th, 2014

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

I want to begin by thanking you all for being here.

My question is for Ms. Wassegijig-Migwans.

You developed a training and employability approach targeting members of your community. This approach is working well, as the number of companies in your community has gone from 5 to 67 since 1970.

According to your experience, is it better to adopt a training strategy tailored to each aboriginal community, with specific programs, or to use a more centralized approach, and why?

[Colleen Wassegijig-Migwans]

The history of our programming has changed. We had geographical delivery back in the days of the pathways program in the early nineties. That meant that we served all first nations, aboriginal people, and Inuit within a certain geographical area. When that changed to a politicized structure, our particular AHRDA served our first nation numbers regardless of residency.

This meant that there was a lot of local decision-making within the community development area, but we also had to take into consideration the needs of our first nation members who were living off reserve, generally in urban centres throughout the country. This has been difficult. It's very hard, of course, to provide some centralized programming for it, so it depends on their particular local labour market what will determine the types of supports they would receive from their home organization.

We have difficulty in working with the provincial jurisdictions concerning what is being supported in different Ontario cities, especially for our social assistance clients. The Ontario Works administration will approve training in a localized manner. For example, Sudbury will approve training for certain programs, while Sault Ste. Marie or North Bay might not approve those same training programs.

So it's a situation of scurrying about to find out who is—

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

My apologies, Ms. Wassegijig-Migwans, but I have to interrupt you to ask for a clarification. You raised an important point that seems to indicate a lack of consistency among the strategies of different partners and stakeholders.

How could this situation be improved? What would you suggest?

[Colleen Wassegijig-Migwans]

Especially in light of the LMAs—labour market agreements—and the LMDAs that are also funded by ESDC for employment and training, there should have been recognition of the relationship of first nations with the federal government prior to the LMAs and LMDAs being implemented. The LMDAs and LMAs have targets for aboriginal people, but we don't know what those numbers or those targets are.

Let me correct that. We have targets, but the LMAs and LMDAs do not have targets. So it is very hard for us to determine what the numbers are of aboriginal people who are being funded under those two provincial strategies. Their seeking of first nation support for their ongoing LMDAs is very difficult for us, because we don't know what the priorities are under those programs. The only accountability we have is through the ASETAs, in terms of who is actually served out there in the urban centres by the provincial vehicle.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

My last question is for Mr. Acco.

You were talking about systemic discrimination. You mentioned a cultural approach that could eliminate certain discriminatory barriers. Have you thought about this and considered other options to prevent discrimination as much as possible? What would you suggest?

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Please keep your response very concise.

[David Acco]

That's a difficult chore for me, Mr. Chair, but I'll try.

Cultural sensitivity is probably the best way to remove racial discrimination, or at least systemic discrimination, and this is something that needs to be taken in earnest, and I believe, promoted by the government. I don't have to look far to notice that. For example, see the public comments that come out of the CBC after they deal with an aboriginal issue. I think that one of the recommendations is cultural sensitivity, and the other side of the coin, I believe, is the interns' point of view as well, to prepare them for some amount of cultural sensitivity to private industry. It cuts both ways.

I'll give you one concrete example of one particular situation that happened to one of my interns recently. Basically it was Halloween, and the first person that she is greeted by in a Halloween costume is Pocahontas. How is she supposed to take that? Of course she reacted very negatively and called me up and had a discussion with me about this. I had to put everything in context for her from this standpoint. I also had to put it in context for the company as well, so next year they're going to come out with a policy for Halloween costumes. Now this is something that looks trivial in non-aboriginal lives, but it's very serious in aboriginal people's eyes from that standpoint.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Thank you. That's great.

We're going on to Mr. Maguire.

You have five minutes, Mr. Maguire.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you for your presentations this morning as well.

I think one of the things that you outlined very well is your internship program, David. You know how it works quite well, but I'm just wondering what can be improved within the scope of the whole aboriginal employment program, just to let us know what the government can do to facilitate more opportunities in those areas.

[David Acco]

One of the things, as Jerry correctly pointed out, is that we need to have more aboriginal professionals inside in management level positions, especially on the operations side of it. When an aboriginal person decides to go into private industry as a professional, the first thing they're relegated to is aboriginal stuff. In other words, work directly with the aboriginal community, human resources as part of the operations management side of it, buyers, and so on and so forth. Being part of a management group, I've had the benefit of being there and being able to hire people, and so on and so forth. If you have an aboriginal person inside of those particular positions, then we'll be able to build a better network. That's one way.

But again it's a challenge with the business units. Where we've managed to do it is basically by taking profit. What we do is we take existing funding and we match them together, and that's the way we actually manage to bring in aboriginal people, by sharing the risk and staging aboriginal people's careers within our master supplier agreements or our contracts that we're delivering. So is industry demanding these aboriginal resources? The short answer is no. However, through the aboriginal internship program we're making it possible for, as you pointed out, that first job, because it is the first job that makes everything.

Thank you.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thanks.

I come from southwest Manitoba, and there is virtually no unemployment there. There are all kinds of opportunities for employment in those areas. We've put a lot of money as a government into apprenticeship training in a number of those areas. I would be hoping that you're able to access some of that as well as we move forward in those areas. But you've obviously expressed a considerable, extensive knowledge in regard to some of the programming, so what do you think is the most important aspect of recruiting and training aboriginals in some of these areas?

We have community colleges there as well. Of course first is to be trained at the elementary and high school level. But with the training that we have available across Canada in community colleges, I just wondered if you could elaborate on how we can best access those for some of the first nations people.

[David Acco]

The answer is that again it boils down to participation. What are the aboriginal people going into in their post-secondary education? It tends to be toward public sector careers, even though the market of available jobs is shrinking. I think the Government of Canada needs to engage aboriginal...and I think they're trying to. I think probably more aboriginal people have to start looking at these particular careers as being an option—careers in the digital economy, in technology, in engineering, in business, and so on and so forth.

Take Queen's University; in having a conversation with them, I think the aboriginal participation is less than 1%, or actually less than 0.5%, in terms of aboriginal people deciding to go into engineering. Yet you have industries screaming for these particular resources, especially to work on these localized natural resources projects. As Canada moves into being a natural resource-based economy as a way of building the nation's wealth, we need to focus in on that.

The other issue, I think, is getting urban aboriginal participation in the management level. You know, it's a crying shame that 60% of aboriginal people are living in the urban centres but we see such low participation in the management levels in corporations.

The flip side of it is getting the existing aboriginal people who are in corporate Canada to stand up and be counted. The government needs to do promotion around that. I believe there are probably more aboriginal people in corporate Canada, but they are not willing to be counted because they don't want to be identified. I think that's probably because of at least the perception of systemic racism in corporate Canada and within the management units they're working with.

So the Government of Canada could do efforts around that as well: stand up and be counted.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Thank you.

That's your five minutes, Mr. Maguire. It goes fast.

That brings us to the end of this first hour of testimony.

I want to thank our witnesses for taking the time to be here.

We had a communiqué from the witnesses who were trying to get into Halifax that they got stuck in a snowbank. It's too bad we didn't have those folks as well.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

That mayor, I don't know....

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Yes, maybe the members from the east coast could take care of these problems in transportation there.

At any rate, thank you again for being here.

We'll take a short recess while we get our second panel in place.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

I'd like to call the committee back to order for the second half of our testimony.

Welcome back. We'll continue with the second hour. This is meeting 17 of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.

For the next hour, we have three witnesses joining us from regions of western Canada. From British Columbia Aboriginal Mine Training Association, we have chief executive officer Ms. Laurie Sterritt and councillor Ms. Jeanette Jules from—I'm going to give this an attempt—Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc. I apologize. I told you how long it took me to learn Haudenosaunee. I'm sure I butchered that.

Joining us by video conference from Edmonton, we have Ms. Charlene Bruno, executive director at the Six Independent Alberta First Nations Society, and finally, by way of video conference from Regina, Saskatchewan, we have Mr. Carlo Bizzarri, general manager at the Ignite Adult Learning Corporation, as well as Ms. Mona Hill, facilitator in apprentice support services.

Each organization will have 10 minutes to present. We'd like to keep it on time so that we can have the maximum time for questioning.

Our first presenters are here, and I believe Ms. Sterritt and Ms. Jules are going to split their time.

Please proceed.

[Laurie Sterritt, Chief Executive Officer, Aboriginal Mentoring and Training Association]

Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Laurie Sterritt. I'm the CEO of AMTA, the Aboriginal Mentoring and Training Association. We just recently changed our name. We were formerly known as the British Columbia Aboriginal Mine Training Association.

With me, as you've heard, is Jeanette Jules, who is a founding member of the AMTA board of directors and a councillor with the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc.

Thank you for inviting us here to speak with you about opportunities to increase aboriginal inclusion in Canada's workforce.

Four years ago, a group of people and partners from industry, government, education, and first nations started AMTA with the goal of connecting aboriginal people to jobs in B.C.'s exploration and mining industries. AMTA was initially funded with $4.4 million under ASEP, along with financial and in-kind contributions from our founding partners. We also received a $10-million commitment from Canada under the SPF program in August 2012. In total, Canada has pledged $14.4 million for five years of AMTA programs and operations. In return, we offer a return on investment in the range of 165%.

With the support and input of our partners, we've created a business solution, and other resource sector industries are looking to adopt what we've created. What we have created is an education and training model developed by aboriginal people for aboriginal people. It challenges the assumptions about aboriginal workers and about how to prepare them for success and meaningful employment.

We've created a program that looks and operates very differently from what many people across all our stakeholder groups are used to seeing, a program built on the principles of flexibility, adaptability, and responsiveness while still maintaining a very structured approach. It's a program generating positive results that align with Canada's commitment to increase aboriginal education levels and workforce inclusion.

We do this by removing barriers one individual at a time to ensure that every AMTA candidate gets what they need to make life choices that may not have been open to them in the past. We do our best to get rid of the things that hold people back, and consistently we've seen our approach generate new possibilities for our candidates.

In AMTA's short history, we've registered almost 2,300 candidates in a variety of education, training, and development initiatives, and we have placed more than 730 aboriginal people into jobs.

In a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study, which I have copies of—they are not translated into French, but if you want a copy of our study I have it with us—we discovered that our candidates earn on average almost 300% more than they did when they arrived at our doors. In aggregate, they are contributing more than $100 million annually to Canada’s GDP.

Our candidates have developed transferable job skills and are in demand because they are ready to work, qualified, trained, and certified to industry standards. They are finding employment close to home, achieving financial stability, and becoming leaders and role models within their own communities.

So what makes AMTA different? How is it that we've been able to achieve these results in such a short period of time?

From the start, everyone involved in AMTA has been willing to challenge their assumptions about education and training models, about aboriginal learners and workers, and about the makeup of their workforce. When we were able to challenge our beliefs and opinions, we were able to see that a new approach was not only possible but necessary.

We started by seeking out meaningful partnerships. Over the past four years, AMTA's industry partners have provided significant financial and in-kind support, and more than 200 companies have hired our candidates. In fact, AMTA has become a key part of the recruitment process for several companies, such as Acres construction, the Gibraltar mine, Graham construction, Ledcor, the New Afton Mine, and Sunridge Equipment, just to name a few.

Our industry partners don't only invest in AMTA to satisfy legal agreements or inclusion targets, though these are important benefits to many. Our industry partners come to AMTA because they are ready to challenge their assumptions about their hiring practices. They have specific hiring needs and they're ready to develop a local, loyal workforce. In short, we work alongside their operational teams to provide staffing solutions when needed and with workers that have the qualifications that are needed.

What else makes us different?

Our application process is unencumbered by the eligibility restrictions that many other training initiatives face, and we have a standardized intake process and assessment method.

For example, we work with all ages and all skill levels. Every AMTA candidate completes a test of workplace essential skills. In consultation with our industry partners, we've decided to focus on our candidates' reading, numeracy, and document-use levels. Through this assessment we find that about 70% of our candidates need to enter our pathways to success program. In order to improve their essential skills, pathways to success also includes many confidence-building exercises like life skills, coaching, workplace orientation, and getting special licences and tickets that will help our candidates become more aware of the requirements of entering into long-term employment. From here, we work with our candidates to identify their particular skills and interests, and then develop customized training plans for each and every candidate. Jeanette is going to speak to this very shortly.

At the same time, we work with our partners to develop cohort training initiatives that suit the industry need. We then contract local educators and service providers to deliver training solutions. We've built programs like underground miner training, environmental monitoring, human resources management, etc.

AMTA staff are involved every step of the way to ensure that we're delivering the right solution for our candidates and partners. That's an important differentiator for AMTA. We manage the process very closely so that our candidates get everything they need to be successful.

Now I'll pass it over to Jeanette.

[Jeanette Jules, Councillor, Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, Aboriginal Mentoring and Training Association]

Thank you, Laurie.

My name is Jeanette Jules, and I'm a fourth-year councillor for the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc, and I have been an AMTA board member since the organization's inception. I've spent 32 years working in first nations education in a variety of capacities, including as the manager of the HRDC programs within my nation. I have experienced first-hand what works and what doesn't work when it comes to training and development of first nation learners.

To continue where Laurie left off, another way AMTA is different, and the reason we are able to achieve what we have in a short time is our focus on the individual. What I've seen time and time again over my career is that aboriginal students are not successful because these programs that they are enrolled in are focused on the group, not the person. The standard approach within the education setting says everyone should be treated equally. The AMTA model challenges this very assumption, and delivers an innovative model for training and development: a candidate-focused solution.

In my opinion, the AMTA model is one that everyone should follow because we've proven that by tackling the issue one person at a time, one by one, we're helping aboriginal learners achieve their potential and make a contribution to their economic health, to their families and their communities, to the province, and to Canada. We have 730 examples of how it works, and another 1,500 in the works. At AMTA we have a model for education and training that is transferable and repeatable, yes, but it is successful because it is flexible and adaptable. We have a relationships and partnerships with more than 150 first nations in British Columbia, and there are 203.

In every instance, we take guidance and direction from the nation's leadership, who understand what is best and what their members' needs are. In this respect, we challenge the assumption that the issues and obstacles for one first nation or another target group, for that matter, are the same for the next target group, because each is different. We then work together to build and facilitate relationships and partnerships between AMTA communities and industry to ensure we're all working towards the same goal. It's not enough to have training and education clauses in IBAs. Those are words on a page. What is critical is the partnerships that we will make in order to ensure that these things happen. It is not easy, but it is possible.

Once the needs of our community and industry partners are clear, we can focus on preparing our candidates for the opportunities that exist. We do this by developing individualized education plans, one candidate at a time. Anyone on the AMTA team will tell you that the individualized learning plans are a must-have, not a nice-to-have. We offer flexible entry, clear pathways, and continuous coaching to ensure successful completion and ultimately consistent job placement.

The mentoring relationship doesn't stop when a candidate enters employment. There are genuine, heartfelt connections between the candidates and the AMTA coaches, who continue for as long as our candidates want them.

We must be doing something right because once our candidates are successful in landing a job the overall retention rate is more than 80%.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Ms. Jules, does that wrap it up or is there more?

[Laurie Sterritt]

I'll just say a closing statement, if that's okay.

Thanks, Jeanette.

I wish we had a lot more time to talk about the results that we've been able to attain, but with this short moment in time we hope that we've shared with you a snapshot of the proven, credible solution that we've created.

We believe that we must attempt to understand who first nation learners are and what their specific and unique needs are, and to create a system that allows for first nations to feel as if they are important to Canada and that Canada wants them to succeed.

At AMTA we look at our role as doing what needs to be done to get our candidates to full-time employment and create an environment that promotes their continued success. We're delivering a system that aligns education and training with real workforce requirements, a system through which we train people for industry-defined job opportunities, a system that's put 730 people into full-time employment generating more than $23,000 each in revenues for government per year—that's more than $16 million in aggregate per year—and a system where candidates earn almost 300% more than they did when they began their journey with AMTA.

We're slowly but surely removing long-standing barriers to employment that exist in many first nation communities, one barrier and one candidate at a time, through our collaborative partnerships with those who share our values and our commitment to empowering aboriginal people to create economic health for themselves, their families, and their communities.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

I think I'm going to have to end it there. We're way over time. I apologize for that.

[Laurie Sterritt]

Yes, for sure.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

If there are more points to be made perhaps they can come out in questioning.

Now we'll move on to our video conference witnesses. The first witness we'll hear from is from the Six Independent Alberta First Nations Society, Charlene Bruno, executive director.

Please proceed for 10 minutes.

[Charlene Bruno, Executive Director, Six Independent Alberta First Nations Society]

Thank you, Chair.

Hi, everyone. My name is Charlene Bruno. I am the executive director of the Six Independent Alberta First Nations.

We are one of the agreement holders in the Treaty 6 territory. There are three of us in total. In 2005 the Treaty 6 chiefs came together to form the Six Independent, which includes the communities of Samson, Louis Bull, Ermineskin, Montana, Paul band, and Saddle Lake. We have populations within our communities of over 25,500 people.

I'd like to thank the HUMA committee for the invitation to speak today. I'm very humbled and grateful to be speaking with you today, and for this opportunity to share some information that relates to ASETS. To put some perspective on what I'll be speaking on today, we'll look at this from a national, regional, and a nation level.

With respect to the national level, Canada's economic action plan ensures training reflects labour market needs. ASETS is best suited and equipped to align the skills of the unemployed with those required by employers. We have trained, qualified experts at our ASETS offices who are working directly with clients to determine needs, assessments, and training requirements, to address barriers to employment, to set clients up in individualized training programs, to match the needs of the demand-driven with industry, and to get clients trained and ready for employment. Building partnerships that benefit communities and nations falls within this category as well. Partnerships with industry ensure employment is available at the completion of training.

The other portion of Canada's economic action plan is training the workforce of tomorrow. The announcement mentioned:

...measures to support the training and employment of Canada’s next generation by helping them get the skills and experience they need to get quality jobs, and...confirming significant new investments to support the implementation of a First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act, which will reform the on-reserve education system, in partnership with First Nations, to achieve better outcomes for First Nations students.

This is a step in the right direction toward building more self-confident individuals and youth within our areas. They will become a greater asset within our own communities, building self-assurance, contributing back to the community, and ultimately building a stronger educated nation within our own communities.

In this area, apprenticeship training was mentioned and at our nation's level, a lot of our nations are undertaking this initiative every year to get our first nation people through first, second year, all the way through Red Seal. First nations recognize the need for these skilled tradesmen within our own communities and how it benefits the employment gap within industry. So we provide entrepreneurship as well, on-reserve training once a year for those interested in this field, and in our own communities. It's resulted in building a stronger economic base on reserve and then expanding that by going off reserve. We have a lot of youth initiatives included within our annual operational plans. The youth initiatives are aimed at getting youth into jobs that interest them and that will allow them to acquire more experience for the jobs they'll be seeking in the future.

In terms of strengthening Canada's labour market, the first nation job fund, which is a new initiative on behalf of the government, targets 18- to 24-year-olds transitioning off income support by completing an assessment that will work for them, and getting them trained and into employment or returning to school. This initiative has high expectations, and some of our concerns at the community level is that it may be moving too fast for the individual, which then could result in poor results. We also have employment centres focused on getting first nation people into the workforce. They have a lot of opportunities available to them. All the job postings that are available to local job seekers are within websites, Facebook pages, and on Twitter.

One of the things that was mentioned that I would like to bring up is with respect to immigration and bringing in foreign workers to fill employment gaps. This opportunity should always be made available first to the first nations people and others within this country, prior to opening the door to external workers.

We also would like it noted that one in every two clients within our region is employed or is returning to school.

So when we look at the employment and social development logic model, which states that ASETS ultimately aims to increase the number of aboriginal people who are employed or integrated into the labour market, and we look at the way it works with the agreements within Canada, we look at the three pillars of accountability, demand-driven, and partnerships. The model itself works within each of our areas because each of the agreement holders works at all of the goals that are put out within the agreement.

We fulfill those requirements in numerous ways, one of them is that, as an agreement holder, we have solid partnerships within our own areas. One that should be noted is with the PTI Group. Saddle Lake Cree Nation has a written MOU with them, which in our opinion is a very good model for a partnership because there are several components that make the partnership work, such as a written MOU.

Within the PTI Group they have hired two liaison workers who work directly with the aboriginal clients and workers and with the business itself to ensure that the staff who are hired are comfortable working there, and that they have somebody to go to talk to. They also have internal policies that deal directly with the partnership. They have on-site training for their staff, for cultural awareness. They work directly with our satellite Cree nation to recruit first nations people in the surrounding areas so they've developed the customized recruitment process. They also have dedicated staff to recruit first nations people. That mandate came directly from the head office at the PTI Group.

Another best practice for us is the trans-Canada partnership within the Maskwacis area. It is a triad agreement with industry, the nation, and the province. They all play a part to make this very important literacy program within our community work. We've seen great success with this program in our communities and would like it to continue.

As agreement holders, we've had partnerships within Treaties No. 6, 7, and 8 in the province of Alberta. We've had forums to share best practices and ways to improve our existing processes. We've had a job fair in the Treaty No. 6 territory that saw over 1,200 people come through the doors over a two-day period in 2013.

Some of the main challenges we are facing have to do with funding. With the increasing population growth within our communities over the past 20 years, we've seen a fluctuation rate of over 30% growth, so the funding disparity has grown within our territories. Of course, the rising cost of tuition means that we can train fewer clients as a funding arrangement, as the funding allocations have gone unchanged since 1996.

One of the other challenges for us is the essential skills programming. There's no note in there for the cultural component, which in our area is a very important part of ensuring that our clients know who they are, know where they come from, and what makes them Cree people within our area. While there are many tribes, the majority of our people are Cree.

The other is persons with disabilities. Unfortunately, at our community levels, we don't receive enough funding for this specific area. We do not have adequately trained people to work directly with the people from our community who are persons with disabilities.

It would also be recommended that we should have additional capital funding for new child care centres. Many of our centres are very outdated and have not received renovations for decades now.

So as we look at the individual, overall the measures and programming that have been put into place ultimately benefit the individual client at the nation level and at the community level. The committee can rest assured that all of the work that's being done to bring each client to the level of employability within the first nation community is being done in the Treaty No. 6 territory. We know that the ASETS program is so vital to each of our first nation communities and contributes greatly to building a viable economic community within each of our first nation territories.

I'd like to thank you for your time. I really appreciate this opportunity.