Government Operations committee  I can't really speak to the shipyards out west. I'm not really well versed on Seaspan and that shipyard, to be honest. However, I'm a firm believer that shipbuilding is a must in Canada, and we should continue to use that to build our sovereignty and the security of our country.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question. Absolutely. We partner with Irving shipbuilding on Pathways to Shipbuilding, as well as Women Unlimited. We have lots of groups that come into the shipyard. I had quickly written down a few numbers. In 2017 we had 11 from Women Unlimited come to our

Government Operations committee  One of the biggest things that I would like you guys to know is that each and every day, everybody works really hard. They are very proud shipbuilders. They are proud of what they do. At the end of the day, when we hand it over to our Royal Canadian Navy and they board the ship a

Government Operations committee  I feel that representation does matter. I think we get out into schools more, visit high schools, NSECs, and just have that representation so that people are really thinking. A lot of high school students now know that Irving shipbuilding is somewhere they would like to work beca

Government Operations committee  Yes, absolutely. One big thing that was a bit of a deterrent for women in trades and under-represented groups was that a lot of the time, if you were going to work, it would mean going across the country to Alberta. That was where a lot of our skilled trades were going. To have

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question. The records I was referring to are with our apprenticeship program. We have had record-breaking numbers for our shipyard. We had 51 apprentices who successfully passed the Red Seal certification in 2021. I believe in 2022 we have it up around the 20s

Government Operations committee  No. That was referencing record-breaking numbers just within our shipyard, within our establishment.

Government Operations committee  In terms of what that's based on, we hired some skills coaches and really changed how the program ended up working out. Just getting together with our apprentices and having a skills coach there teaching everybody and sharing experiences really helped out the apprentices to be ab

Government Operations committee  I find that the value of unionized workers is the ability to have absolute pride in your work and ensure the safety and security of your fellow co-workers. We have lots of committees that are dedicated to health and safety. There is a sense of more security in unionized environme

Government Operations committee  Do you mean to address some of the job shortages?

Government Operations committee  We do work hand in hand with ISI, but as we're not a labour hiring hall. We don't actually have recruitment from our labour union. That would be solely on the Irving shipbuilding side of things. We do work in tandem with them. If we have anybody we would like to refer or.... Trad

Government Operations committee  Our whole shipyard is based off of generational shipbuilders. We enjoy a family-oriented business. We wouldn't want to see any of our members face the same boom and bust we saw 10 years ago and prior to that. It was a hard time. It's really hard. We have families who live around

Government Operations committee  Are you referring to the—

Government Operations committee  Yes. We're open to that. I know Irving shipbuilding is always looking to hire more Canadians. If we're running short on applications and looking abroad, we will welcome people with open arms to become Canadians and come into our membership to gain the experience and the skills to

Government Operations committee  COVID hit really hard. For many months, we didn't have a full operating workforce. When we did, we had really strict restrictions. Nova Scotia took a leadership position in the way they operated in the COVID pandemic. Many different things were put in place. We had zones in the