Mr. Speaker, just a few hours ago an important announcement was made in my riding of Whitby—Ajax.
The announcement details an innovative training centre and a number of facility upgrades that are designed to help ease the critical shortage of highly skilled information technology and technical workers in Canada. To put this announcement into context, it has been estimated that the shortage of IT workers in Canada is between 15,000 and 30,000.
The facility announced this morning will be known as the Manufacturing and Information Technology Centre and it will be located at Durham College.
It is also highly noteworthy that Durham College will carry out this project with significant intellectual and equipment contributions from Bell Canada, General Motors, IBM and Nortel Networks.
Durham region is a major player on the manufacturing scene in Canada and around the world. This area also has the second fastest growing population in Canada and the second highest per capita income of the 20 census metropolitan areas in the country.
The importance of MITC for Canada as well as my—