Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. In SAWP, we've had workers for over 35 years, and I think I'd like to clarify that we have not always had the same workers. As to the gentleman saying that I don't know my workers, no, if I say they don't want to immigrate, they want to go home. They want to go to Mexico. They want nothing to do with staying here in the winter, and the reason we do know that for sure is that we have approached them over the years trying to say, “Listen; we will try to bring you in under the temporary foreign worker program.”

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Llewellyn was our first temporary foreign worker. We had been part of SAWP, which is a stream that is considered to be different. My father was in it before me; we've been in it for 35 years. As far as the temporary foreign worker program on a work contract for two years is concerned, Mr.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's correct.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can't really answer much of that, because I don't know about the caregiver part of it. As far as the other part of it goes, none of the employees we bring in through SAWP ever have an intention to stay. Over the years, we have never had any of them who wanted to stay in Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They're coming for seasonal work for up to eight months at a time through an LMIA. That is just specific to seasonal work. The temporary foreign worker is a two-year program. That's different. It's a higher skill.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yesterday would have been good.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would agree with the fact that landed status is a good idea. There should be some check-in to that to make sure those people are not going to be a strain on society. That being said, the way it works now, we've already tried permanent residency. We're submitting again. We're a year in and with any luck, we will have it before Llewellyn's two-year work permit is up.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That would be great.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Even if it were a couple of months, tops.... If it were less, that would be great. Even for SAWP, it used to take three to four months; now this past year it was less than two. So things are starting to look up there, but as far as the temporary foreign worker is concerned, it is a long, dragged-out process.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. I did go through an integrity audit a year and a half ago. No offence to her, but the person who came out and investigated could not speak a word of Spanish, but she interviewed 19 Spanish-speaking Mexicans. A lot of them don't speak much English, or very little. She was asking them questions behind closed doors and my guys walked out of their meeting shaking their heads, saying they had no idea what she was talking about.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In the little piece of paradise in which we live, there are a lot of veggies, a lot of labour-intensive crops and a lot of family farms. Their farms aren't thousands of acres. The average farm is 150 acres. That said, yes, there's a need to tap into programs, but as you said, we don't qualify.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I do believe there should be a clearer path right now. To nominate somebody to come in, to farm in our area, we have to have at least three full-time employees. For farming a seasonal operation, where the majority of our crops are harvested and the majority of our work is...in less than eight months, it's hard to have three people who work, as it's dictated, a minimum of 35 hours a week, 52 weeks a year.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. Correct.