I'm in favour of doing away with the LMIAs as quickly as possible. IRCC also needs more resources.
You're absolutely right when you say that it's possible to lose employees when they return with an open work permit. This happens for restaurants, as you said. It's a real problem.
On the other hand, what we would like to see is groups of restaurants, chains of 10 restaurants, for example, to be allowed the flexibility of moving employees from one restaurant to another. That would be important.
I'd now like to briefly raise two other issues.
This year, a measure was introduced to allow us to hire up to 30% foreign workers rather than 20%. This measure is applicable to seven sectors, including our restaurant sector. We would appreciate it if you could extend this measure, because it gives us a lot of breathing space.
I'd like to raise one last point. We've already talked about it and I will be raising it again later. It's about the National Occupational Classification, which very accurately classifies occupations, and which is applicable to foreign workers who are brought here. This classification should be amended, with the categories of occupations broadened to give us more flexibility. That would allow us, after arranging to bring in foreign workers, to train them in other occupations afterwards so that they can work their way up in the company. It would be good for the workers and perhaps enable them to obtain permanent resident status in Canada.