Good morning, members. I'd like to say that I thank you very much for having given me the opportunity to meet with you this morning.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce released the report, Opportunity Found: Improving the Participation of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada's Workforce, last December. I believe it was sent to all members of the committee.The report was driven by our members' desire to address one of the key factors in the challenge they face in finding the skilled workers they need, and that is the under-representation of aboriginal peoples in our workforce.
The Canadian Chamber—and many others-—have focused on the significant difficulties aboriginal peoples face in completing elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education, and then after that, in obtaining and retaining employment. In this paper we took a different approach and we highlighted productive initiatives to improve the workforce participation of aboriginal peoples and the competitiveness of employers that resulted from it. We also offered recommendations to the federal government and Canada's businesses—and that's something I always try to do in my papers, offer suggestions to the business community as well—on measures that both can take to provide aboriginal peoples and the communities that they live in with tools to make these success stories the norm.
Our key message is that increasing the number of aboriginal workers in our workforce is not an aboriginal issue, but an issue that concerns all Canadians.
The completion of high school is considered the minimum level of education required for employment. While the education success gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians is closing, it needs to do so a lot more and it needs to do so a lot more quickly.
There's a lot of focus on post-secondary education, however this is meaningless for people who don't finish high school. Many aboriginal organizations are doing something about this. One of the examples I mentioned in the paper is Saskatchewan's Mosquito First Nation, which has been directing the national child care benefit payments it receives from the federal government to programs to bring its people in year one up to grade 10 equivalency, and now they're working on bringing people from their first nation up to grade 12 equivalency, and then on to post-secondary education.
We also mention examples of companies and post-secondary institutions recognizing that they need to invest early in tomorrow's aboriginal students and employees. A couple of the examples I mention in the paper include RBC's aboriginal stay in school program, which has actually been around for 20 years and offers aboriginal students positions in RBC branches across the country. There's also the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, which has weekly programs with aboriginal 12-to-18-year-olds in Oshawa, Ontario, aimed at giving them a sense of their culture and demonstrating to them the benefits of having an education.
Amongst the recommendations that we've put forward to encourage more of these kinds of initiatives is that that the federal government look for more opportunities to match business funding for aboriginal skills and training programs.
Educators have told us that they believe one of the biggest roadblocks to aboriginal students' success in school and the work force is that they can't see where they fit into either one. This is why we and many others find programs like the Nunavut Sivukniksavut program very interesting, and recommend that the federal government fund more programs like it that instill a sense of place and pride in aboriginal students before they enter post-secondary education. So this is a program that occurs after high school graduation.
We've heard from businesses and training organizations about the frustrations caused by programs that come and go—we're talking about the review of some federal programs today—and also by the government being more focused on paperwork and audits than on results. This is why we've suggested that the federal government would get better results for its aboriginal training dollars if it avoided changing project deadlines, parameters, and launch dates. The example that I mentioned in the paper is with the Northwest Territories Mine Training Society's experience.
We've also suggested that the government offer businesses tax credits to make it more attractive for companies to assist new small businesses in remote areas, many of which are often aboriginal businesses. We have also proposed that the federal government ensure aboriginal communities have access to business and financial literacy training if they wish, and that in the territories where there is no provincial government to go to for another level of funding, the federal government direct a portion of the resource royalties received from extraction in the territories be specifically earmarked for skills and training programs.
Our members believe that Canada, through its governments, its people and enterprises, has the means to leave behind it the failures and deceptions that went with the participation of aboriginal persons in its society and economy.
We all have to pursue opportunities to do so in ways that are realistic and respectful, and achieve the results that aboriginal peoples desire and all Canadians need.
I thank you once again for having given us the opportunity to appear before you this morning.