Status of Women committee  Thank you very much, Madame Chair, and good morning to you and the committee members. It is a distinct privilege to address this committee today on women in skilled trades, and I thank you on behalf of the board of directors and members of CAWIC for allowing me to do so. My pre

Status of Women committee  It's not a chapter of CAWIC, but there are some committees within local construction associations.

Status of Women committee  It's a 36-month project. We started January 2014 and we received $249,900.

Status of Women committee  We're still in the needs assessment phase.

Status of Women committee  We have to get into the schools. We've been trying to collaborate with other organizations and the unions getting into the schools and raising the profile. What we'd like to recommend—and one of our recommendations in our report will be—a media campaign. There are some smaller c

Status of Women committee  Yes. CAWIC has a mentorship program for women entering the industry. It's not necessarily for young people; it's for anybody in the industry. If you're looking for a role model, we try to match you with a member in or outside our organization. It depends what the need is. Our st

Status of Women committee  And it's an ear, a natural ear.

Status of Women committee  We are trying to change that perception within the industry. One of the things that have become very prevalent in our knowledge base going through this research program is that the industry itself is quite fractured in its initiatives. Within the industry, women are even more fra

Status of Women committee  It's still early, but those are very valuable programs. The challenge there is that when you go into the schools and you go into the different industries, they're actually not aware of those programs, so there's not enough profiling of those programs. Even the OYAP program, the O

Status of Women committee  It's an excellent program.

Status of Women committee  What CAWIC has been doing is partnering up with the school boards. We will actually go into the schools, into the elementary schools, and we'll have a career day at grade six, so we'll actually talk to them. We'll bring in tradeswomen to talk to them about trades at a very early

Status of Women committee  From the employer side and from the female participants, they are saying that they weren't aware, and some of them weren't aware of the funding programs that are out at both the provincial and the federal levels. That's something that's important, so we help to share that informa

Status of Women committee  I recommend a stronger collaborative effort with industry associations. I think we have construction industry associations right across Canada. We have the Canadian Construction Association, and all of the provincial associations are members of the Canadian association. Then you

Status of Women committee  I think you reach them through the education system. Education is mandatory, so why can't we reach them? If they don't want to come in, if we don't want to implement these programs through the province and then through the school boards, how about a paper campaign? How about some

Status of Women committee  Definitely by grade 6.