Citizenship and Immigration committee  We are prepared so that if someone comes to us with a certain skill set, that's absolutely a benefit, but if they come with a willingness to learn and to become a part of the construction industry and build a good career there, we will take care of the supportive training to get them there, whether it's a pre-apprenticeship or apprenticeship program or an upgrade or training that will help them get to the next level, if they come to us with certain skills.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are some opportunities. We do everything we can to help them overcome that and get to a certain level, because for their safety and in order to operate productively for themselves they need to have some basic language skills in the construction industry.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We do everything we can to fill those gaps.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, absolutely. In almost every major city where we are involved in, as I said, the construction industry, manufacturing, and hospitality, we have a local union to represent members who work in that vicinity and also a training centre to support existing members in upgrade training and also to support apprenticeship and new skills training, which is the type of training we would use for new recruits, including those from the Syrian refugee initiative.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. As I think I mentioned, we see shortages and we're looking everywhere we can for the next recruit, not only to provide opportunities but also to put people into jobs and fill the need in the construction industry. Many sectors have come to us and asked us what we are doing about recruiting.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, there is, through our union and our training programs. Employers, of course, rely on us to have an individual who is sent out to the job sites prepared to operate safely. We accept the burden of doing it because we want to turn out an individual who is prepared to go to a work site and operate safely, but of course, employers are also partners in that and they are doing that on a regular basis on their job sites as well.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It has been a challenge, to be honest with you, and we've employed several different approaches to it in order to achieve some success. In partnering with some of the community agencies that are either sponsoring or working with the community, we've established some early education or English as a second language education prior to going into training programs.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to address you today. My name is John Mandarino. I'm the Canadian national director with the Laborers' International Union of North America, or LiUNA. The department and area of LiUNA that I direct is the Canadian Tri-Fund, and among the responsibilities of the Canadian Tri-Fund is training and recruitment for the organization.