Thank you very much for the question.
We're quite excited about what we're calling now the first nations forestry workforce initiative. After a number of years of looking at the upcoming demand in the forest sector for the workforce, we took it upon ourselves to get involved in provincial-level studies to identify what is that demand.
We saw 14,000 new workers needed in the forest sector in the next five years, so we went to our communities and took a look at what this young, aboriginal demographic in B.C. actually looks like. We can see 50,000 aboriginal youth ready for the workforce in the next 15 years, which is 16,000 per year, so it just slightly beats the total demand in the forest sector.
Our group is very strongly focused on how huge this opportunity is for our youth to participate in the sector. It absolutely requires a heightened level of support for aboriginal youth. We all know the challenges that our communities face, the barriers in education and the health and welfare of our communities, in trying to be ready for the workforce.
We've had good success in extremely small numbers. Our program itself is delivering under 100 candidates per year. We're trying to get a better sense across the province of other organizations and their efforts so we can address the overall opportunity and make sure we're moving towards it.