Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate that. The point I am trying to get across is, as it has been stated in recommendation 23, “That the federal government and the appropriate parliamentary committees consider further study of the following three topics”. Then it lists off the topics.
The Liberal Party believes the committees need to meet to have following dialogue to ensure that the work that is important gets done. We will continue to push for this.
Having said that, and listening to many different comments, let us go back to recommendation 1, which states:
That the federal government work with the provinces and territories to improve education and labour market information for secondary and post-secondary students so that they can make informed career choices. As well, efforts should be directed to promoting apprenticeships.
There is a couple of things that really come to my mind that are very important to emphasize. The national government has a role to play. We, in the Liberal Party, would ultimately argue that the national government has been found wanting in meeting the needs of fulfilling that role, that there is so much more the national government can do.
We know we have a Canada social transfer. That social transfer is in excess of $10 billion. I suspect it is probably closer to $12 billion. I do not have the hard number, but I know it is definitely well above $10 billion. What is that social transfer for?
I can bring to the chamber a perspective that goes beyond just the House of Commons, because I also served inside the Manitoba legislature. I can reflect on many of the debates that occurred there and how important it was that we had that Canada social transfer, and the role that the federal government could play in not only providing money, but even going beyond the issue of money.
The best example I can think of right off hand is something of which many apprentices throughout Canada would be very much aware. In this recommendation, it talks about promoting apprenticeships. There are apprenticeship programs in every province, primarily administered by the provinces, but the federal government does have a role to play in working with the provinces.
More and more, labour is very mobile. Labour wants to ensure that, as much as possible, it is able to benefit from education and training often received at a fairly expensive cost such as going to a college or university. It wants to ensure there is mobility. When I say mobility, I am talking about more than, for example, just becoming a specialty cook or chef and getting a certificate from the Red River College in Manitoba, and only working in Manitoba. People would like to enter into future potential employment opportunities that go beyond one province.
We have the Red Seal program that has afforded many, in many different occupations, the opportunity to not only practise the training they have acquired in one provincial jurisdiction, but to take that training and go to other jurisdictions, quite often with that Red Seal.
As we go forward into the future, I believe we will see more of a demand for things such as the Red Seal. There will be more of a demand for the federal government to look at ways in which it can work with provincial entities. When I say provincial entities, I am not just talking about the provincial government, I am also talking about other stakeholders such as our colleges, universities and other post-secondary types of facilities, even our high schools in some situations. People would be amazed at the types of education coming through our high schools today.
I have the good fortune to have Sisler High School, Children of the Earth High School, R.B. Russell Vocational School, St. John's High School, or Maples Collegiate, all in Winnipeg North. Canada's brightest and most talented graduate from those institutions every year, which might sound a bit biased. However, many of those individuals are going directly into universities, colleges and other forms of post-secondary education. Many of them will go into the private sector in the hope they will be able to continue on through apprenticeship programs.
Generally speaking, those apprenticeships programs are initiated through the provincial government and different stakeholders, in particular industry representatives. They all have an important role in recognizing those who graduate and, as much as possible, to ensure there is the right connection. It is critical that government recognize it has a role to ensure there is a connection to the type of jobs that are there today and that will be there tomorrow, and ensure that our educational facilities across the country move in a direction that will see jobs for those people who graduate.
There are certain industries, and every province has them. I often talk about Manitoba's aerospace industry. It is a very important industry to our province. It has and provides hundreds of jobs for Manitoba. The impact it has on our families, our social life, our economy is virtually immeasurable. It would be upsetting to not have the educated or those graduates to fill those jobs.
I have lost the context of time somewhat, but I believe it was three or four weeks ago that I took a tour of Magellan Aerospace. It was nice to see that it had world-class workers who were providing state-of-the-art production of military hardware. As I went through the tour, one of the places we went into was a college classroom. We have an industry working with a post-secondary facility, which has provided the chairs. Those youth, and they are primarily youth, have the benefit of having a class in a world-class manufacturing company that has some of the most expensive and totally unique capital infrastructure. It is one of the reasons why places around the world turn to Magellan to get certain parts manufactured.
These are the type of connections that are important. Governments do have a role to play in this.
The leader of the Liberal Party talks about reaching out and connecting with Canadians and the importance of the middle class. Liberals are talking about making sure that people get good, quality jobs. We are putting an emphasis on how important education is. How can we provide more opportunities for young people? Without a doubt, it is through education. Education equates to opportunities, but there are many opportunities being lost because in many ways we are not making the connections. If we read some of the committee comments with regard to other social issues that need to be addressed in order to afford people the opportunity to gain employment, especially disadvantaged youth, we would go a long way in addressing youth unemployment in Canada today.
With those few comments, my time has already expired. I only covered 3 of the 25 recommendations made. In answering a question, I may be able to cover a couple more.