Thank you, Chair.
Witnesses, again, thank you for being here this evening and making your time flexible for us.
As you know, we have now been tasked for the past nine months, almost since the House of Commons came back, and we have been working as best we could to try to provide recommendations to Parliament and to the government that would help modernize our perspective as it relates to manufacturing. We are indeed getting quite a bit of information, which I think will be very helpful. And we are getting themes constantly coming back to us.
Today we have a bit of a different perspective from all of you, and I want to thank you for that.
First of all, Ms. Courtin, with the work you're doing at that very important level.
We've heard from many manufacturers that it's a question of skills, and I think as we go further west into Edmonton, into the chair's riding, Mr. Rajotte's riding, we may find out just how important it is to have students going towards skills.
I'm wondering if you have found, as you've contrasted the number, the percentage of drop-outs, this program itself is having some success--the partnering and the awareness of the program. I know that within the CME it's a great, well-known program that you're putting forth for those at a very young age. How widespread is it known throughout the school system that there is this possibility of bringing kids into this stream of education?
In my view, if I'm looking at my average constituent, those who have trades make a hell of a lot more than do those of us with shirts and ties.