I went to university to be a phys. ed. teacher. I'm a push-up and chin-up major, and now I run one of the fast and upcoming construction companies in Kitchener-Waterloo. I did that because the dream that my parents were sold was: “You're going to come to Canada. You're going to work really hard. You're an immigrant. You're going to save up and you're going to put your son through university because that's the Canadian dream.” And it was a great dream, except that when I graduated and paid my $40,000 of tuition, I had no job. What helped me pay for university was the great construction industry and the skills that I learned there. Until we change that stigma—and that stigma comes from every single one of us in this room here—it doesn't matter.
As I said, I've been involved with the school systems for over 20 years. It's a drop in the bucket. It's a great drop in the bucket—don't get me wrong—but we have to do more to get it back in the school systems earlier. We have to bring the prestige back to the trades, because as I said, you can make a widget, and the next day that widget's gone. We build a home. We build the communities. We build dreams where people live every single day, and not enough of that is said.