I thank you for the question about the representation of Métis people in British Columbia. There are approximately 70,000 Métis people. I think the statistics are well known that the age group is quite young and of that workforce-type age.
I believe in a somewhat pragmatic approach. What I mean by that is that although PETRONAS or BG Group or TransCanada, or whoever, has these huge projects going on up north, it is the contractors, as I mentioned before, who are the employers.
One of the ways we did that was that in March of 2013, I brought together all of those partners. I brought together all the leads on employment training from all the industry sectors. We brought the unions in. We brought the B.C. government in. We had AANDC there. We had HRSDC ASETS representatives there. We had a round table for two days and had that discussion. Several recommendations were brought out of that.
This year we brought together the energy development and the Métis in western Canada. When we had all the CEOs and presidents from all the industry partners in Canada and the United States there, along with the provincial and federal government, Western Diversification, and a lot of deputy directors, from that we brought those recommendations for industry.
Having said that, sharing the information and the knowledge about who you are and what those objectives and goals are, I think they are the same. But we're not talking to each other enough. When we talk to them and say, okay, how are you going to...? I'm sorry, but I'm a very pragmatic person. If I have TransCanada and they are doing some clearing on a right-of-way for all the electrical projects that people forget about because all of those pumping stations have to have generation stations—and it's another whole huge dynamic of industry development—we need some guys to clear that line.
TransCanada doesn't hire them. Some logging company or somebody is going to need those guys. If we're not in touch with those guys at our community level, they are not going to get the work or the contracts. We have gone out there and started building joint venture agreements with bigger companies to give us the sustainability and capital to access those contracts through joint venture agreements. At the same time, we have made them agree in writing that they would hire our people and train them. So another way to do this is through joint venture agreements. The economic development skills training capacity piece, I think is one thing.
Thank you very much, Chair.