Finance committee  My point is that we have large numbers of people who don't have the skills that are suited to employment. I mentioned different categories. If we were able to bring a large percentage of those groups into the skills they needed for employment, our problem would go away.

Finance committee  I absolutely support the notion that we must collaborate, as Mr. Van Kesteren suggested. If this modality or this format—I'm not intimately familiar with it—is a way of engaging labour, educational institutions, employers, and related interests, I think we need to do that. We ha

Finance committee  Well, in our brief we did reference some opportunities to improve apprenticeship outcomes, with tax measures specifically described in our brief, that would be quite helpful.

Finance committee  Absolutely. And I would say we do that. We referenced earlier the reality that many eastern Canadians fly to your part of the world: 30,000 every two weeks commute. If we can train up in Nova Scotia and other eastern provinces the skills that you need in Alberta for the oil pat

Finance committee  I think we do this very well. We get together all the time. We talk about these things. An important need is to improve pathways for students, not just between or among colleges but between universities and colleges. That's a big need in Canada. We have all sorts of blockages fo

Finance committee  In Germany, if you're very skilled at what you do on the trade side, you are a master craftsman. In Canada you are a journeyman. We have a real problem with British class language that we have to change.

Finance committee  Streaming or streamlining?

Finance committee  In my own experience, that is dysfunctional. We do not know what capacities individuals have. I have a good friend who was told he should not expect to go to university, and he's a very successful lawyer. They tried to stream him, but his parents wouldn't allow it. I think we don

Finance committee  Well, in fact, in Germany they have a good laddering program. You can move between a more academic program and a more applied program. You can go back and forth. I think that's one of the brilliant features of the German system. We're not so good at that. Once you're in a stream,

Finance committee  Well, solving the problem today would be a big job. Many strategies would be required. I fear that these people are being overlooked. I fear that we're not giving them options, opportunities. We're not identifying them. We're not giving them the hand they need. They need to be

Finance committee  We believe there's a good opportunity here for the Government of Canada to show leadership. Provinces have jurisdiction, but there are many interjurisdictional barriers, as we mentioned. We need a national vision. The national vision is to equip every Canadian with the skills th

Finance committee  We do not use the word “vocational” either. It's education. It's trades professions. If we can upgrade our language from British class language—this is British class-based language, “Trades entrance at the rear”—I think we'll do a lot to improve the perception of these occupati

Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  There is not a mismatch in the college sector. Our graduates are highly successful at gaining employment. In your area, I think George Brown reports in excess of an 85% placement rate.

Finance committee  The problem is that we don't have the capacity to deal with all young people. If only we did.