That's an excellent question, because I think there are different angles to it or different facets to it.
I fully recognize that education is a provincial responsibility. I know that, especially in the university, which gets its money from the province, not from the federal government, or at least not directly from the federal government. We get it through the province setting tuition fees, and of course through the transfers to us.
I'm really following my colleague, Professor Ross Finnie of the University of Ottawa, on this. I want to distinguish between the so-called hardcore unemployed, which include some people in the aboriginal community, because that's an untapped resource. We're not talking about 16- or 17-year-olds. These can be people who are 25 or 30 and they are not really strongly attached to the workforce. They haven't been able to obtain any long-term career or a permanent career. That's one group that needs special attention.
That can be done through what I've been calling HRSDC, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, but you have a new name for it and I can't remember what it is. Programs can be developed through that and Employment Canada to target the hardcore unemployed. I'm guessing that will mean working with the provinces, too, to include people on social assistance.
If I can use business language, the ROI, the return on investment, in targeting the hardcore unemployed is going to be very high. If you hired some people to crunch the numbers, I think you'd find a very strong correlation between poverty and the hardcore unemployed. If you can crack that nut by training them.... I don't think they're choosing to be poor. I don't think they're choosing to be in that position.
I've seen the data, by the way, and I will provide it to the committee after. This is from the U.S. Census Bureau and StatsCan. It actually shows income and education as being incredibly correlated. It's not a one-for-one relation, but it's very high; that is to say, the fewer years of education you have, the higher the probability you will be in poverty. You can make that kind of probabilistic statement.