Human Resources committee  Yes.

Human Resources committee  Many studies are conducted, either by the department or various research organizations, in connection with what you are raising. I would need a specific aspect in order to be able to answer your question.

Human Resources committee  I think this is a good suggestion. This would be a massive study if you started to do every industry sector.

Human Resources committee  As we mentioned, there are a couple of initiatives ongoing. The federal government has a suite of programs, as I mentioned. Certainly, conducting more and more awareness initiatives and doing programs targeted specifically at youth, the way that Ms. Bertrand has been speaking to, targeted at promoting the trades and starting as early as possible as part of the education system, is a key aspect of it.

Human Resources committee  That is correct.

Human Resources committee  First, I think that what you are describing is not specific to the trades. The availability of labour is an across-the-board issue in society. It is also a matter of demographics. In fact, we see that the birth rate is just not sufficient. That is one of the reasons why there is a somewhat more aggressive immigration policy, one that aims to make us more competitive with other nations, so that we can attract and retain employees from all walks of life and from everywhere.

Human Resources committee  I don't have any off the top of my head, in terms of whom we're working with, but we certainly do.

Human Resources committee  Yes, we will provide them to you.

Human Resources committee  Every year the department has a fixed envelope within which it works to establish projects with community leaders. Certainly Monika has spoken to some of them. Every year the priorities of the department are reassessed in terms of making sure that we're directing what I would call an appropriate investment strategy for the projects that are submitted to us.

Human Resources committee  Essentially HRDC has been working closely with the provincial and territorial partners and especially the Department of National Defence to try to align the military trades with the civilian trades. There are a number of correlation studies. It's fairly technical to match military and civilian trades.

Human Resources committee  For apprentices, our main vehicle is the Canadian Council of Directors of Apprenticeship. We work with the provincial and territorial representative. Through that particular working group, we work with industry representatives. We have various partnerships and various projects. When they're related to the construction sector, we'll work with for example the construction sector councils or with other industry representatives.

Human Resources committee  Yes.

Human Resources committee  We certainly do. I don't necessarily have one readily in mind, but we also know the reasons from the surveys we conduct through Statistics Canada. I can mention some of the reasons here. Certainly finding and keeping continuous work is one of the aspects that is a problem. Finding an employer who's committed to the apprenticeship program is another.

Human Resources committee  We build it around those obstacles, and that's why the programming is directed the way it is.

Human Resources committee  There are three aspects to your question. In answer to the first one on whether it needs a major overhaul, no. I think we have a solid suite of programs addressing every single aspect of the apprenticeship question. Could we do better? We're certainly monitoring and identifying our priorities every year and trying to work within the envelopes that we are being provided.