Certainly. I'm happy to address that.
First, as it pertains to lapsed funding, one of the biggest challenges we are seeing is the time it takes for projects to get far enough along the queue to access that funding. An approach such as the one we're proposing, enabling the city regions to have access to the funding at different stages rather than waiting until the later stages, would enable us to get more projects under way.
As it pertains to job creation, we actually did a study looking at Toronto, not at some of the other municipalities. For the infrastructure projects that have been approved in the Toronto region, we mapped out the jobs that would be generated. It's 146,000 jobs over the next 10 years, half in the trades and half in professional services related to these infrastructure projects.
The challenge we have, however, is that there are some barriers in getting students streamed into those opportunities. Those are things we're dealing with at the provincial level.
For instance, our apprenticeship models are quite restrictive. Half the kids who pursue careers in the trades are unable to get apprenticeships, so they're unable to get those positions. We have engineering firms and professional services firms saying they're going into high schools to talk to grade 9 or 10 students about careers in those fields.
From the feedback we've received from our members, some of it is a supply of talent, and some of it is just the timing, sequencing, and flow of funds.