Thank you to the witnesses. I think we've had a very engaged discussion this morning. I have a comment and a question.
I appreciate the comments about the allocation of funding, but to be quite frank, I've just lived through the health care change and it is always fraught with challenges. So whether it's principle-based, is it really where the workers are most needed, and need to be trained like the west, or the Maritimes which is struggling, or be proportionate? I think it's a really important point, but where the right solution is I actually don't know.
I find that when we have these LMDA discussions we regularly head into the broader discussion of skill shortages, then we tend to look at the LMDA as a be all for everything. I think it is important to remember that for our students, we have the Canada student loan programs. We've done incredible things recently for apprenticeships, for young people going into apprenticeships, and with the targeted initiative for older workers, the LMAs. What is the LMDAs function within the bigger array of programs?
It sounds to me like the employers are saying “We don't really care where those training funds are used as long as we get the person we need out of that”. I am familiar with the circumstances of someone recently who is EI eligible, who's a longtime worker, who through no fault of their own lost their job and is on EI but is unable to access the kind of training they need to move on.
My first question is, and maybe Mr. Mendelsohn can answer this one, are all the people who are actually eligible currently, without expanding the criteria, really getting the support they need? Certainly, from anecdotal experience I would say no.They're being told “Oh well, we've run out of money for this year so we can't support you on that training”.
We obviously have some challenges there.