Finance committee  I'll address it quickly and then let Linda respond. In the college system, there's a balance between trades and the technology division, and we need to have that balance. It's not just about the trades. In fact, that's why we carefully worded our coalition. It's about skilled wo

Finance committee  We need to have graduates coming out of the college system who know how to research and innovate problems. If we don't do that, we're doing a great disservice to our industry; they're not coming out, as graduates, as well prepared as they should.

Finance committee  If I could add, I think the P3 modelling is fabulous. P3 Canada has done a great job in collaboration with the provinces. It may be mortgaging your future because there are availability payments that go on for 30 years, but at least we can get infrastructure built today. It's no

Finance committee  I would second that. I think there's a tremendous amount of collaboration between the colleges and industry. I think we need a focused approach in that area, leaving it up to the colleges to determine the great projects to research, but with industry in collaboration. I think ind

Finance committee  I think that's a starting point.

Finance committee  Very briefly, I think a strategy is absolutely what's needed, and a strategy that differentiates from the universities. It's what you don't do for the colleges now. For example, no college research chairs are supported by the federal government. That's a travesty. If you don't ha

Finance committee  If I can just add to that, my understanding is that the college system was created in the fifties by the vision of the federal government providing 75% of the capital funding for colleges. Since that time, the federal government has done virtually nothing, except in the January 2

Finance committee  I think it has definitely been helpful, yes. It's a good program. We have problems with apprenticeship training across Canada. Industry needs to step up and do more, and we are working on that.

Finance committee  To answer that question bluntly, I think the skilled worker shortage across Canada is pervasive across most industries. There are sector councils that consult with most industries. Our construction sector council has been putting out reports for the last five or ten years. This p

Finance committee  I don't know of industries that have a surplus of workers. We represent over 20 national associations, and not many of those associations have surpluses. Otherwise we wouldn't be here today.

Finance committee  It's actually $2.9 million of federal funding for research innovation across Canada. Colleges get less than 1% of it.

Finance committee  We don't want to be putting ourselves against the universities. Obviously the research being done at the university level is vitally important to our economy. What we're asking for is some additional funding, 5% of that $2.9 billion, to be allocated in addition to the current fin

Finance committee  I think I'd like to address the industry. Of the applied research being done at the colleges today, a great portion of it is being funded by industry in order to get their programs reviewed by the colleges. I know, for example, that at Red River College in Manitoba they did a t

Finance committee  Thank you. I'm going to have to speak quickly, then. Before I get to our recommendations, I want to underscore Pamela's point about the pervasiveness of the skilled trades shortage across the economy. In the construction section alone, a skilled work shortage of 316,000 workers

Finance committee  Thank you, and good morning to the panel. My name is Paul Charette. I'm the current chair of Bird Construction Income Fund, the immediate past chair of the Canadian Construction Association, and the chair of the Employers' Coalition for Advanced Skills. Before I ask Pamela to o