Finance committee  I would give an example. Early childhood education is a very lowly paid employment opportunity. Does it make sense to get a $15,000 student loan to go into a $20,000 career? Can we not have certain agendas whereby we're actually helping people gain the employment, like incentives

Finance committee  I would agree. There has been an increase in people participating in post-secondary education. The question is whether that is satisfying what the economy really requires from an output perspective. It would be our opinion that we are not achieving, especially in the skills train

Finance committee  We obviously support any resources that are being provided to improve participation rates of the aboriginal community in post-secondary education. There is a significant opportunity. If we look at the demographics of the aboriginal population, there is a baby boom that will be en

Finance committee  Yes, the cuts do have an effect, both in the context of what comes to the college system and also to our community partners. Given the context of the issues around the aboriginal community, literacy is a critical matter that faces this province. We have to prepare people to parti

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  I have no comment.

Finance committee  Yes, it's 13% in the province.

Finance committee  Yes, that would be a fair thing to say. The last statistic I heard said that about 54% of the first nations in Saskatchewan live off-reserve, and there is a migration to the larger centres of Saskatoon and Regina. There's a draw to those communities, but I think there is also a d

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  I don't think we would have an opinion on reform within the welfare system, but I do think that, from a community perspective, we need to promote the value of education. We need to ensure that the aboriginal community is very much welcomed into the industries and businesses that

Finance committee  That's a loaded question. The one thing that I think would most benefit the country would be a national agenda. I do think there is a reluctance when I hear of waiting lists in other jurisdictions, and I wonder if places like Saskatchewan have the capacity to offset some of the

Finance committee  We do work closely with the universities. As regional colleges, we actually deliver university programming through a positive brokerage arrangement with our university partners. We find it interesting, though, that often we've promoted the skills training agenda at various provin

Finance committee  I don't think the importance is to identify where the money goes. The reality is that we need more money in the system. We need to see the support of the students. We do feel the potential student population is not entering into post-secondary education because of the high costs.

Finance committee  Absolutely. I think it has an impact in two regards. One is that, especially among young males, we're seeing a gravitation to the employment opportunities in Alberta, so in many regards it has reduced the population that we have available to train. Secondly, it's giving us traini

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here today with my colleague Mark Frison, president of Cypress Hills Regional College, and we are representing the eight regional colleges in Saskatchewan's post-secondary system. Among the eight colleges, we cover the lion's share of the geography