Thank you, Chair. Good morning to our witnesses.
Anna and Melodie, thank you for your very compelling stories. They're unbelievable.
I want to start by telling you that I have a good friend—my riding is Saint John—Rothesay in southern New Brunswick—a female friend who's a welder. We often talked and she lamented the fact she had been the only female in her class or course. I've talked to welding associations and have had lots of meetings with Matt Wayland too, who is with IBEW, the electrical workers. It's quite clear that basically 5% of their workforce are women. Obviously, that's not acceptable and we need to increase that.
I'll start with Ms. Vasseur, Ms. Dempsey, and Ms. Archer, just to get your comments on this. What can we do to make sure we increase the number of women in the trades? Do you think there's enough alignment between schools, industries, and trades to encourage more women to enter the workplace?
I'll start with you, Ms. Vasseur.