Thank you for the question, Mr. Perron.
Let me remind you that the ratio you are talking about recently went to 20% in Quebec. However, for most of our members everywhere else in the country, it is still 10%.
As for what the appropriate threshold might be, we have asked for it to be increased to 30%, because we feel that that would be a real help to companies with urgent labour problems they are trying to solve. We are asking that it be done on a temporary basis, for the next 18 months, to give us the time to find medium-term and long-term solutions.
Should the threshold be increased to 100%? We would certainly not be complaining if that were the case. But we are aware that the government has certain concerns and that it wants to proceed in stages. We will soon be seeing the effect of the increase in the threshold from 10% to 20% in Quebec. We know that a lot of companies want to take advantage of this new possibility now available to them. On the other hand, as one of your colleagues mentioned earlier, it can take up to eight months to process applications. So it is important to tackle the problem of processing time simultaneously.
One of our fears is that the announcement of this new threshold will create false hopes with employers. If they apply but have to wait eight months to get those workers in their plants, they will be no further ahead. It is still a solution, but it is not the urgent solution we need at the moment.
I will stop there.
The issue of equity with the agricultural sector is a valid one. It is important for agriculture to be able to maintain their access to foreign workers, as they can do at the moment. The idea is for processors also to be able to have more foreign workers, if only on a temporary basis.