Finance committee  It's a huge capacity issue. There are long waiting lists for those programs for which there is a high employment opportunity. We just don't have the resources to educate all the young people we would like to. Remarkably, at this time, when employers are extremely unhappy and fi

Finance committee  There is federal money. Through the Canada social transfer, there is a post-secondary component, which is at $3.8 billion. We think that increasing that component and expecting some sort of outcome—as in the health sector now, where there's been increased federal investment with

Finance committee  We urge the Government of Canada to equip the colleges and institutes with a capacity to respond. There are many opportunities. The knowledge infrastructure program provided tremendous support. There's an opportunity to renew that. We also reference the tremendous contribution c

Finance committee  Thank you, Chair. Thank you, members of the committee, for the invitation to join you this year. Canada's 130 colleges, institutes of technology, polytechnics, and CEGEPs have campuses in 1,000 Canadian communities. I know many of your ridings have college campuses. We serve

Human Resources committee  Certainly one federal responsibility, which I hope will be addressed following the budget, is the K-to-12 education on reserve, which has been disastrously underfunded. About two-thirds of the amount the provinces provide has been provided to on-reserve aboriginal K-to-12 learner

Human Resources committee  The Ring of Fire has been mentioned, and I just wanted to say that we're working very hard with colleges in the north and aboriginal leaders to try to identify some programs that would support aboriginal learners in that area for the Ring of Fire opportunities.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. In Ontario there has been a specific program. You actually mentioned it: Second Career Ontario I believe is the name of it. The province instituted it to help the transition of people formerly employed in manufacturing. There is major displacement. An

Human Resources committee  I'd like to add a comment from our sector. I mentioned applied research partnerships with small and medium enterprises. One of the most exciting things I did last year was go to the Algonquin College applied research day. I saw all these employer-student relationships and the thi

Human Resources committee  I concur with my colleage Mr. Robinson that there is much that we're doing and there is much more that we can do. It is difficult to drill down to a local environment, though. I mean, people are—

Human Resources committee  Well, as I mentioned, there is something called the Canada social transfer, and embedded within that is a considerable amount for post-secondary education, $3.8 billion with an annual increment. It was announced and renewed in December. I just want to know if there would be an

Human Resources committee  I just want to acknowledge, Mr. Mayes, that the knowledge infrastructure program for colleges and institutes was marvellous. We were able to catch up with a lot of deferred maintenance and indeed expand the capacity of the system. We've expressed our gratitude for that program ma

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. It's a very important one, because in fact the employment success of disabled persons is very low. The numbers are not good at all. In fact, they're something of an embarrassment. But I do know, as my colleague has suggested, of particular institution

Human Resources committee  I know Olds College, and I know its president very well. The college has shown great leadership and great imagination. You mentioned Red Deer College, and I would say the same for it. I'll cite another example. They have a program to train elder-care workers, and they have the

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. Youth unemployment is a terrible problem in Canada—you've cited some statistics—especially among young men. Women are doing much better. They are more present in post-secondary institutions, especially in universities. We do have an issue with young m

Human Resources committee  Let me respond in a somewhat different way this time. I did reference the fact that some provinces are reducing their investment in post-secondary education, which I think is inappropriate at this time. Also, we do have great regional disparities. In Quebec, in Montreal many of