Thank you, Mr. Estabrooks, Mr. Caron.
I do have one question I want to bring here.
I know ACOA reasonably well. I will agree with you that on firms you've operated with their productivity is better, and their contributions to the economy is better. We have some real challenges. The reason I raise this is that I'm one of the Atlantic Canadians who would love to see my kids come home and work in Atlantic Canada. It's not happening.
When I look at the numbers with ACOA being in place for the last number of years, with the aging of the population, our demographics are going the wrong way. We're still having an out-migration of youth. We're not retaining them. Even with the immigrants who come in, we don't retain them. As soon as they're a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident they go elsewhere in the country. We have a low retention of immigrants and that's with all the good work you're doing.
The problem on productivity is that the lowest productivity in Canada is in Atlantic Canada, and it's even worse in P.E.I., I hate to admit. My question is along these lines, and I'm not questioning that ACOA is doing good work. I think you are, but if we do what we've always done, then we can expect the results to be the same.
What else do we have to do with ACOA in order to increase productivity, to retain immigrants in the region, and to get our kids back home so they are contributing to our economy and not somewhere else in the world? What's the problem? How do we solve it?
We're going to be making recommendations to the minister. I'm a strong supporter of ACOA, but I want to see it be able to do the job that needs to be done. I don't like the results at the moment.