We're going to provide this morning a little bit of a different perspective, I think, on the LMDA, and, in many ways, our experience with the labour market agreement funding.
Let me just give you a real quick overview on the British Columbia Construction Association, the work that we've been doing, and then Paul Mitchell, my colleague, will give you more of the detail around the program that we've operated now since 2006.
First off, we're an employer organization, we're not a labour relations organization. Our membership is some 2,000 companies across British Columbia who are all involved in the construction industry. About 500 are general contractors, about 500 are manufacturers and suppliers, and the balance are trade, speciality trade, and civil contractors.
As I said, we're an employer organization, so we're a little bit unique in the fact that we are operating a program thoroughly embedded in the demand side of the supply/demand equation, if you will, around the training programs. Our experience over the last number of years has indicated to us that this unique relationship exists probably only in British Columbia. There are few organizations like ours that have taken on this type of programming.
We're directly connected to the employers. We have a team now that has grown over the last number of years, with a staff of some 57 field workers in 14 different communities across the province. One of their tasks is obviously to connect with the employers. They make some 6,000 points of contact with employers on annual basis, and the purpose for that contact is to find out where the jobs are. In the recent discussions, debates, negotiations, whatever you want to call the whole process around the Canada job grant, we actually found ourselves in kind of a unique situation where what we do is exactly what had been envisioned with the jobs grant, that is, to align people up with employment opportunities, and then provide them with sufficient training to make them either more employable or to make them successful in achieving employment.
We did distribute some information. Our results last year were some 2,800 people in the Province of British Columbia that we were able to connect with jobs in the industry.
Now we know that the construction industry, while there are many opportunities for employment in the industry, lots of trades to get involved in and a lot of administrative roles, it's probably not the easiest sector to get into, particularly if you're a landed immigrant, if you're in the aboriginal community, if you're woman, or if you're a person with disabilities. Paul will be able to illustrate how we overcome some of the challenges associated with that fact.
We are looking at the evolution of the jobs grant as an opportunity for us. The eligibility criteria had been a very big problem for us when our funding was confined to just the labour market agreement. Non-EI eligible or someone looking to improve their employability meant, quite frankly, that when our staff hold an information session, whether it's in Kelowna, Vancouver, Prince George, or whatever, 50% to 60% of the people in the room we had to show them the door because we couldn't work with them. So we appreciate the fact that the British Columbia government a couple of years ago went out on a limb a bit, invested some of their dollars in allowing us the opportunity to deal with the full spectrum, and then blended in some LMDA funding that allows us now to deal with 100% of the people that literally come through the door.
We're in a pretty interesting environment in British Columbia right now. We did circulate a statpac that we've generated. The world is hearing a lot about LNG development. The statpac that I hope is in front of you really only includes one LNG plant, and there's potential for a number of those plants.
So in terms of the numbers of employment opportunities we have, there is pretty substantial demand in British Columbia not just for skilled trades but also for entry level work in the construction industry. I know that our management team and our staff are excited about the future. We believe there is a role for labour market development agreement dollars, because of those eligibility criteria. We think we're a living illustration of how to make the connection between job opportunities, employers, and the required training to get people into the workforce.
I'll turn it over to Paul and he can give you more detail on what we call our demand-side driven model.