Citizenship and Immigration committee  We would absolutely agree. Again, it's not the silver bullet solution. It's one of many different avenues and ways that we need to deal with this issue, but it's probably one of the most significant, and the fact remains that Canada does compete with other countries in finding the most skilled and the best people for the jobs available here.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think we haven't actually had those discussions, but that said, a big concern of ours right now is succession of entrepreneurs. The fact is there's not only a shortage of labour, there's a shortage of entrepreneurs. Certainly, we do see immigration as one aspect that can be used to help make sure that smaller and medium-sized businesses or independently owned businesses are successfully passed on to a new generation.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, we don't have any. We've never looked at that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I believe workers of any kind are what are needed today. Again, going back to Monsieur St-Cyr's question, we believe there probably should have been more consultation prior to this and an understanding of what we're getting into. I do think that is something we're concerned about.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, we were not consulted on this aspect of the immigration bill. We have been consulted on other elements of it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't think any of us are disagreeing with what you're saying. In fact, the last chart that I showed on my particular presentation really illustrates the fact that the immigration system, as it exists today, primarily lets in folks with professional degrees. Yet that's not where the skills that are needed in our economy today are located.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I believe the majority of our members would prefer a permanent immigrant. At present, however, it's easier and faster to go through the temporary foreign worker system.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  CFIB'S positions on issues, just so you know, is always based on feedback we get from our membership. We gather this feedback through a variety of surveys throughout the year. We then pass on these results to you, the decision-makers, so you can incorporate some of their ideas and thoughts and concerns into your own decisions.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for the opportunity to be here this afternoon to share with you the perspective of small and medium-size companies on Canada's immigration system. I hope this will help you in your deliberations on part 6 of Bill C-50. You should have in front of you a copy of our December 2006 report, which talks about the experience of smaller firms with immigration, based on a survey that got about 12,000 responses.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. So on the first page, I just want to give you a quick overview of who CFIB is. It's a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization that represents the interests of more than 105,000 business owners across the country. These are primarily small and medium-size companies that we like to call the non-stock-market economy because they're independently owned and operated companies.