There are two undeniable facts about construction in regard to child care. The first is we still are at 4% women's participation. Obviously, it is surprising to see a journeyperson carpenter, because we're only at 4%. So obviously child care is a barrier. It's part of the glass door.
The second part--and I share these concerns with the construction industry, who are the ones who are asking the hardest questions about this, the owners of construction--is that when you have a construction labour shortage, as we do in Canada, and everybody accepts that it's chronic, clearly we are ignorant to ignore the possibilities of bringing more women into construction. And clearly day care and child care is one of those issues that we have to cross. When you have these massive job sites in northern Alberta of 10,000- to 15,000-person camps and not a single day care within 200 kilometres, clearly the family issue is front and centre.
So for the industry--and I mean from oil companies to construction contractors--and for the labour providers such as ourselves, and also even in some senses the Alberta government, which has taken some good positions on this, it's a hurdle we have to address front and centre; otherwise the construction crisis will continue and the barriers to women's participation access in construction will continue.