In terms of a skills shortage, companies can find welders. Welders can be trained to a multitude of skills, depending on the industry requirement. Where industry is having difficulty finding skilled labour is in the area of metal fabricators. Those are the guys who know how to use a measuring tape, cut materials to various angles, assemble components or different structures together, and then fabricate them in an assembly unit and allow the welders to then proceed with the welding. We have been organizing an annual welding educators conference for the past six years. Actually our seventh year will be next year in Calgary, at SAIT. One of the first comments we received from educators was that we need to standardize welding education. So our board approved an investment of $3 million to develop this online training material, and we're providing it at no cost to all high schools in Canada, and we are charging a nominal fee, to recover our investment, to colleges and trade unions to use it. There are a whole bunch of high schools and colleges that are using this program right now. We keep adding to it. We're investing more to make sure that it changes as technology changes. We're not done with the investment in Acorn. It's an ongoing process. We want to make sure the latest and greatest technologies are included in this training material so that our students have the best possible resources for learning.
On December 5th, 2017. See this statement in context.