Sure, and thank you very much.
You have before you a copy of our presentation, but I'm not actually going to go through it. It's there for you to consider at your leisure. There's quite a lot of information in there, and in a few minutes I'll turn to slide 8 entitled Aboriginal Training Organizations and Mining Sector in Action.
To start with, I thought I'd summarize what our message to you is today. We are, according to Statistics Canada, the largest private sector employer on a proportionate basis. We've seen significant growth of aboriginal participation in mining over the last 15 to 20 years . Between 2007 and 2012, we saw a 14% increase in that timeframe, and the preceding five years were similar. Clearly, there's an acceleration of aboriginal participation in mining. A lot of this is brought about through the agreements that are reached between companies, and I think you've met with some of our members over the last several weeks that you've been holding hearings.
As you know, Cameco is the largest private sector employer in the country. You also see at operations at Voisey's Bay around 60% aboriginal participation. The diamond mines in the Northwest Territories have 30% to 40% aboriginal participation, and that's direct employment. Also indirectly, you'll see there are a number of aboriginal businesses that have been set up to serve and supply the industry. That's also part of the industry that I think is not captured in the Statistics Canada results, but there are huge spinoffs that flow from that. It's a really important part of the mining story in Canada and in our view it's one that's going to continue and accelerate with time.
As an industry we're also facing a human resources shortage. The pressure at the moment is a little abated because the industry is going through a bit of a downturn, but in general—and Ryan will speak to this in a few minutes—we do have an aging workforce. You'll hear this, I'm sure, from the Chamber of Commerce as well. There is a lot of turnover taking place in the industry, and aboriginal people represent an important source of replacement workers for the industry. So there's a real direct industry imperative to continue the progress we've been making to improve aboriginal participation in mining.
Really, that's the main thrust. There are a lot of good reasons to do this for the industry, as well, in this country. If we want to develop a mine, it helps a lot that aboriginal people want you in their backyard building that mine and ensuring that they can participate actively in the mine, either through direct employment or other ways. It's really, really helpful.
With that, what would my messages be for the federal government and for parliamentarians?
There have been some very successful programs that have been around now for a number of years. I was personally involved in one when I was CEO of the Mining Association of B.C., and that's called B.C. AMTA, which, when I was there, was the B.C. Aboriginal Mine Training Association. It's now been morphed into the B.C. Aboriginal Mentoring and Training Association. It's going beyond mining. I like to think that it started with mining, like the original frontiers, and now it's expanding to many other sectors of the B.C. and Alberta economy. So they're expanding beyond the border and they're expanding into other sectors. It has played a hugely critical role in accelerating the participation of aboriginal people in mining in B.C.
As I mentioned, I sat on the board of this organization in its early days. Its original office is in Kamloops, and they've done incredible work there, but they now have branch offices in many other parts of the province. The B.C. AMTA model was based on the Mine Training Association in the Northwest Territories that developed around the diamond mines. We've recently seen an announcement of a similar program in the Ring of Fire, which I congratulate the government for because I see this as being very proactive.
Why are these initiatives important and why is the federal government's involvement important? I can tell you, having sat on the board, that what the federal government does by bringing itself to the table with financial support is level the playing field: it puts industry and aboriginal communities on an equal playing field around the table.
When it's just industry money, and believe me, there's industry money and active industry participation in these initiatives, but when that's the case there isn't a balance no matter how hard industry may try. It doesn't create the right conditions for participation, I believe. Whereas the federal government involvement or the provincial government involvement levels the table, makes active participation, and helps build trust that over time can be really, really important. I've seen this at work in Kamloops. I've also been to some of the events involving the New Afton mine in Kamloops. I've seen the graduates of this program and I can tell you it's extremely moving to see largely aboriginal youth going through these training programs and having a job and a certificate at the end of it. I think these initiatives are transformative. We're only at the beginning of these programs and I think over time you're going to see some true transformation taking place in a lot of those communities where mines and these types of programs are available.
Our message to you is to really continue these types of investments. There is a review currently under way of the two key programs for this: the ASETS program; and, the SPF program, the strategic partnerships fund. Those are two HRSDC programs that have provided the kind of funding that I'm talking about to allow these organizations to flourish. There's a five-year review. You get our full endorsement of these programs, and I encourage you to recommend that they be continued and in fact enhanced. Given the opportunities ahead of us across the country in the mining sector and in other natural resource sectors, I think there's going to be more demand for programs like this.
With that, I'll stop and turn it over to Ryan.
Thank you very much.