Madam Speaker, I compliment the Reform member for Saanich—Gulf Islands who, just prior to the rant we witnessed by the member opposite, made what I thought was a very thoughtful and important speech about young people.
He spoke about his concern about young people, about children. He talked about having a two year old and a four year old at home and how he was concerned about their future. That is the exact reason why I asked the question some time ago of the Minister of Human Resources Development. I talked about what the government did in its first mandate and what it is continuing to do in this mandate as it relates to youth unemployment.
I too have children. They are not really children any more. They are 23, 25 and 27 years of age and in various stages of education and working. I see all three boys and a lot of their friends who come to our place. These young people today, who are the immediate resources that will be leading us in the near future, are very concerned about their future. They want to know about opportunities for advancement. They want to know about training opportunities.
In my riding of Mississauga West we are experiencing an unemployment rate that is a bit below the national average. It is about 12% for young people. That is way too high, even though it is lower than the national average.
My question has to do with my concern that I hope the minister will work with local community groups and boards of education that have put forward alternative proposals and with the private sector to implement programs that will create opportunities for young people.
Recently the minister approved a program known as Ice Youth. Ice Youth is a tripartite agreement between the private sector, a company in the business of building arenas; the board of education in Peel; and the government. These young people will be trained and given class b refrigeration licences. It will teach them about all the sophisticated equipment and everything necessary for working around an arena. In Canada that is a huge business and a terrific career opportunity, but it is a very small program.
I hope the minister will look at other programs like that one where we can involve our young people in working co-operatively with the private sector, the local municipality and the school boards to create new opportunities.
We have seen training programs in past governments designed to train people but no jobs tied to them at the end. Programs like the Ice Youth program and others I hope we will see approved following the budget of the Minister of Finance next week will be tied directly to jobs.
The private sector will take advantage of funds from the government to create economic growth by saying to a particular young person “We are going to train you in this field. We are going to give you a trade. We are going to give you skills. We are going to give you knowledge that will then be tied to a job”. What is the point of training someone and then having them sit at home with nothing to do?
I hope the parliamentary secretary can reassure me an my constituents—