Public Safety committee  Thank you. That's a great question. I wasn't sure how I would be able to raise that point. So thank you for asking about it. For the past four years, we've been supporting certain government programs. Fours years ago, we signed an agreement in principle with the Department of National Defence in order to formalize an approach that was already being used.

Public Safety committee  Absolutely.

Public Safety committee  Is it accessed enough? Unfortunately, we don't believe so. We wish more people would access that support.

Public Safety committee  As one of the government's major suppliers, we are required to participate in the employment equity program. And we've been part of that for about three years now. It's fairly recent, so we do have programs. Right now, the percentage is 27%. To the question about active recruiting, it is indeed something we do, and it comes under the employment equity program.

Public Safety committee  We do provide mobile security patrols and mobile alarm responses, mostly to our clients, but we also have a Homewatch program. We do some of that, but we're not big in that sector. There are a few companies who are very, very big. Yes, we do that. Here in Ottawa, you may have seen our cars on the road.

Public Safety committee  No, you didn't. As long as they can be employed and they meet our criteria of a clean criminal background and a few other things, yes.

Public Safety committee  We have, but now we're putting in a program such that we will coordinate our approach nationally as well as locally. We've realized that we can do a lot more for our veterans by going into this line of business and also do a lot more for police agencies to provide better security of our people as well.

Public Safety committee  There are a few barriers. I can think of probably two major ones. One is the image that private security has projected in the past. Keep in mind that up until recently our industry was not regulated in all quarters of the country. If it was, it was not really enforced very well.

Public Safety committee  In the Atlantic provinces, the program does not exist yet. However, we are in communication with the RCMP to see if we can do it there the same way as in Manitoba west. In Ontario, such a program does not exist.

Public Safety committee  I don't have the details here, but I can give you some information. We'll gladly provide more details. For example, to uniform one of our guards, it's about $500 to start, and about $150 year after year. In terms of licence costs, in most cases that's paid fifty-fifty. It's about $45 a year to operate as a security guard.

Public Safety committee  In some cases, but in other cases not. As I said, we have a workforce of five generations. We have the 19- and 20-year-old kids, and when I say “kids”, I mean young adults who are in their last year of college, in police foundations studying to become a police officer, or at university, especially in the summer.

Public Safety committee  In the present workforce, it's about 45%, or 8,000 out of 17,000 full-time employees.

Public Safety committee  That is exactly one of the reasons why we want to do more in terms of alternative service delivery for police agencies and the so-called non-core policing. Because in many cases.... The 911 dispatch, which we do, does require certain skill sets, specific skill sets, and often, if not all the time, has a job rate that is a little higher than it is for your standard security, your private security guard.

Public Safety committee  Some are.

Public Safety committee  Yes, it is a big education. In fact, the onus is on us to do that. Some are more open than others. We might have been seen as a threat to their workforce in the past in some quarters within their organization, but we have made some headway. Police agencies or municipalities have used the opportunity to launch pilot projects, not only to see if this would work, but also to see if it would bring benefits or be more efficient.