Finance Committee on May 28th, 2012

[Sandra Harder]

Yes.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

How much?

[Sandra Harder]

David knows that.

[David Manicom]

It is $550 per adult and I believe $125 per child.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

That's to answer your question, Wayne.

[Sandra Harder]

Those fees, of course, will be refunded.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

They'll be refunded, yes, but clearly it was a revenue source of some kind at the time it was conceived because there was no limit placed on how many FSWs would be accepted, right? It was unlimited.

[Sandra Harder]

There is no limit on intake. There is always a limit on output.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Okay, so that could be considered a cash cow.

Okay, I don't expect you to answer that.

Wayne, there's your answer.

I read a book recently by James Clifton, who's the chair of Gallup. It's titled The Coming Jobs War. He essentially talks about how the battles in the future are going to be over jobs, not just in developed countries but in developing countries, because all the empirical evidence indicates there's going to be a higher demand for jobs around the world.

Creating a demand-driven economic immigration system, a legislative framework, really speaks to that empirical evidence, does it not? And I would suggest that it's a good public policy initiative. Would you agree?

[Sandra Harder]

I would agree. Part of the ethos behind moving in the direction that the department is taking, that the government is taking on immigration, is to have a system that's somewhat more active in terms of recruiting and not passive in terms of accepting all applications.

So we do want to be in a position to be able to select the best, not necessarily the first. That will inform the broader directions to the immigration program over the future.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Thank you.

I'll give Mr. Hoback the rest of my time.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

You have one minute.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I'd like to clarify some things for our colleagues across the floor. This budget isn't just about cost-cutting mechanisms. It's about repositioning the government and repositioning Canada in such a way that we can generate jobs.

I use this example. We had a pre-budget meeting in Regina, where the chamber of commerce talked about trying to locate a business there, and the business was coming to Regina but couldn't find a thousand employees. They needed a thousand employees, so thus, they did not come to Regina. They could find 600 employees, but they couldn't find a thousand, and that's where the labour market opinions, and looking for these employees to fill these positions are so important to keep our economy going. We're losing economic opportunity in Saskatchewan, not because it's not there; it's because we don't have the people to do the work.

So I assume by the changes that you're making, by hitting the reset button, that those people can all reapply. I understand. They get their money back. They can reapply. They get recharacterized and moved into the queue according to the skill sets that we want. And then the processing time that they'll go under at that point in time will be what?

[Sandra Harder]

It will typically be six to 12 months.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

That is substantially better than seven years.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

I want to thank our officials for being here, especially so late at night. I want to thank the other officials for coming forward and being here. Unfortunately, it is 9:30, and we have reached the end of our time tonight.

Colleagues, tomorrow we will be meeting at 10:30 a.m., not at 9:30 a.m. Please check the updated agenda.

Thank you.

The meeting is adjourned.