I share your frustration.
Our ability to raise awareness about the availability of these programs is limited because by and large they are not delivered by the provinces. Since the late nineties, with the devolution of labour market programming from the federal to the provincial governments, they took ownership of this. I know you have views about how Employment Ontario is or is not doing its job to raise public awareness of these programs.
We are doing some things at ESDC to increase uptake and awareness of the programs. First of all, we are upgrading our website and our web presence. We are about to launch, early next year, Canada Job Bank 2.0, which will be a much more interactive website, and I hope it will also be connecting people to the many programs that are available.
We are looking at launching a massively upgraded dial 211 system so people who need employment support can get someone directly on the phone who can direct them to the appropriate program.
I've asked provinces, in the negotiations we've had, to renew the labour market development agreements, now the Canada job fund agreements, etc., and to do a better job of reaching out proactively. One of the key priorities we have for provinces in LMDA renewal is not to sit there passively in their Employment Ontario office or wherever, waiting for the unemployed Canadian—that's not going to happen to you, but for Rodger in November of 2015—to knock on the door. We don't want them to wait there passively. We'll be sharing information with them on who is unemployed. We want them to pick up the phone and call those clients.
This is what they do in Germany, early intervention, active measures. Call them in and say, “Get in here within a week of losing your job and let's work out a plan to get you the relevant training, to connect you with an employer.” That is the big push we're making with provinces through the LMDA.
My frustration is not just with employment services, but with foreign credential recognition. We are spending something like $30 million a year on efforts to streamline and accelerate foreign credential recognition, pre-arrival orientation, etc., and yet when we do focus groups and public opinion research, virtually no immigrants know anything about these services that are available. Yes, we do broadly have to do a better job of promoting these things.