By Michelle Bakos, Press Secretary, Office of Minister Finley
September 7, 2010
On behalf of the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health and Minister Responsible for the North, today announced $12 million in funding to the Contaminates Remediation Training Organization of Canada (CRTOC) for its Caring for the Land project. Based out of Calgary, Alberta, this project will provide training opportunities for Aboriginal people, primarily in the North. The project is funded by the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership program, which is supported under Canada's Economic Action Plan.
"Canada's Economic Action Plan is making a difference by ensuring that Aboriginal people have the training and skills development they need to fully share in current and future economic opportunities," said Minister Aglukkaq. "This project will help accomplish this by providing training for up to 600 Aboriginal people, leading to hundreds of long-term employment opportunities."
The Caring for the Land project is a formalized partnership comprised of representatives from Aboriginal organizations and communities, the environmental remediation sector, educational institutions and the Government of Canada. This project will help Aboriginal people participate in the clean-up of federal contaminated sites that have been identified throughout Canada. The project will provide community-based training to address emerging labour and skills shortages, and will respond to private sector willingness to invest in the recruitment and retention of Aboriginal people.
"The CRTOC will encourage employers and the Aboriginal community to work together to develop a competent contaminates sites workforce for the future. The skills and knowledge acquired by the Aboriginal participants will be transferable to other sectors of the economy when the contaminates sites activities have been completed. It is a win-win situation for all partners," said Mr. Grant Trump, President and Chief Executive Officer, Environmental Careers Organization of Canada.
The Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership program promotes partnerships between the Government of Canada, other levels of government, local organizations and employers. It provides on-the-job training that leads to long term jobs in high demand professions such as mining, hydro development, fisheries, tourism, construction and infrastructure. Canada's Economic Action Plan provided an additional $100 million in funding over three years for this program to create more and better opportunities for Aboriginal people.
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