When we use foreign workers in the food-processing sector—and primary agriculture would be very much the same—sometimes we use temporary foreign workers because the jobs are seasonal. If you think about canning tomatoes, for example, that's a seasonal job. Other times, we're bringing in foreign workers because there is simply a structural shortage of workers here in Canada.
The TFW system, as my colleague from Olymel pointed out, is a very cumbersome system. There are limits on the percentage of TFWs you can have in a company. The application for TFWs is very long, even though you're often bringing in TFWs, the same persons, year after year, and you're having to book six months out for the workers you need. There's absolutely a need to go in and look at the TFW system, modernize it and simplify it.
On the other side, we have permanent jobs and we're looking for economic immigrants to come to Canada to take on permanent, full-time, respectable jobs with us. There are many people who want those jobs. The way our immigration system works, though, is quite complicated. It's a point system and there are various streams. Very few of those streams, if any, as they award points, actually favour what we may think of as the blue-collar workers or the technicians who are coming to work in food plants.
We're dead before we start, if you will. We really have very few opportunities to bring in the workers we need, because the system has been designed not to favour the workers we require.