The Department of Human Resources has a program aimed at assisting all sectors in the area of labour. It helped us create the Mining Industry Human Resources Council or MIHR. This council has been in place for a long time, but it was restructured some two or three years ago. According to a study carried out by the Council, we will be lacking between 60,000 and 90,000 employees in the coming years, perhaps within five years, as Mr. Stothart stated.
What do we do now? The Council launched several marketing programs in order to alert Canadians to career possibilities in our industry. Given that the system varies from province to province, the Council has begun to standardize job descriptions in the industry.
MIHR is working in collaboration with the government. The various associations are moving in the same direction. For example, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada has a program entitled Mining Matters aimed at elementary school children. The Quebec Mining Association and the Association de l'exploration minière du Québec both have programs aimed at raising awareness among young people regarding careers in the mining sector. Both the government and industry are taking steps. Unfortunately, lay-offs are part of the current picture and the problem is not going to disappear.