Thank you very much.
Minister, it's great to have you here, and for such a length of time as well.
Minister, I am sure it will come as no surprise to you that I want to begin this morning talking with you about the Conservatives' mismanagement of the temporary foreign worker program. I want to ask about that program and some of the many problems with it, because I see nothing in votes 1 or 5 indicating money has been designated toward improving it or overhauling it.
Minister, when you were scheduled to appear before this committee on March 7, I planned at that time to begin with this same topic by referring to the HD Mining International debacle in my home province. Last month the Federal Court agreed to a judicial inquiry into the process that allowed HD Mining International to bypass qualified Canadian workers and instead hire 21 workers as temporary foreign workers.
Minister, we can point fingers at HRSDC, and indeed we should because that department is responsible for inaccurate labour market opinions—LMOs and ALMOs—but it is CIC, your department, that granted the work permits.
Then your visit was pushed forward to today, and I can also reference a scandal from this month. That is RBC's capacity, within the bureaucracy of this Conservative government, to fire skilled Canadian workers in exchange for cheaper foreign labour. Again, Minister, it is your department that would have granted those work permits.
The last time we had the opportunity for a formal exchange, Minister, was at heritage committee last November. At that time you mentioned a departmental review of the temporary foreign worker program by referring to a press release on the CIC website. That press release is dated September 2011.
Minister, can you tell me what became of that review initiated 18 months ago? Who was consulted? Who will be consulted? When will it wrap up? How was any real investigating done without moneys allotted to improving it? Also, can you tell me how many work permits are issued annually for fields that do not currently require LMOs or ALMOs?