That's been a huge question for the provincial government as well, particularly now in times of fiscal restraint, when we've been arguing that you need to increase immigration levels and you need to allow the people who come here to stay here—not the temporary foreign worker model, but opening the doors to allow more immigrants and to have strong provincial growth strategies as well, working hand in hand with the federal government.
To encourage people to stay, there needs to be support: strong public services, fair labour rules and fair wages, and language supports. The labour market agreements can assist with that.
For example, the more vulnerable in society are the new Syrian refugees. Some of those agreements could be expanded to allow support for the more vulnerable in society to be able to have language training or to stay on EI for the duration of their training or to assist workers in Newfoundland and Labrador. This is not immigration, but another part of population growth. Ten thousand workers are leaving Alberta to come back to Newfoundland because they've lost their jobs there. They're trained to do jobs that don't exist in Newfoundland and Labrador anymore, so how do we transition them and how do we provide all their training through the labour market agreements that exist?
It has been a huge subject for us in discussions with the provincial government, as well as how you work federally. In our opinion, the temporary foreign worker program as it exists doesn't work. People who come to work in our province or across Canada should be able to live there. We need them desperately as well, particularly in areas like Newfoundland and Labrador, where we have an aging population and a declining birth rate. We need to make it open and welcoming and supportive for immigrants to stay.