Thank you, Ms. Ashton. I'm very glad you brought that up.
The lack of staff is huge. You hear a lot about the shortage of teachers, but we also need education aides and principals. If Quebec has more than 300 vacant positions right now, imagine how hard it is for a town like Thompson—which is a seven-hour drive from Winnipeg—to get teachers and staff to settle there and keep the community alive.
Let's be clear. Schools are somewhat the epicentre of French life in small northern communities. That's why we prioritized community schools. Some of their funding comes from the federal government, but it's not enough to support the transition of those families. We recruit them, but once they arrive in Thompson or St. Lazare, we can't turn our backs on them. We have to continue helping them integrate into the community, and that takes a lot of time and money. I know money isn't always our favourite topic, but at a certain point, attracting these families requires money.
What's more, there is little recognition of credentials. We also look for candidates in Africa and Latin America, but once they're in Canada, it usually takes a very long time for them to become permanent residents, so they often go elsewhere. The credential recognition process is a real maze. The five, six, seven or eight teachers we might be able to get can't be hired as teachers until their credentials are recognized in Canada. That usually means they have to go back to school, so supporting them in that process is also very important.
The other thing is we have to recruit people directly from those countries and not lie to them. Instead, we need to sell them on the natural beauty Manitoba has to offer. We can sell nature lovers and hikers on our fishing and hunting. We can sell them on northern, eastern and western Manitoba. To do that, though, we have to go to Africa to recruit those people and provide federal support for the whole permanent residency and visa process, so they can have a good life. Otherwise, they have to start at the bottom.
