—we have the lowest birth rate in the country, and that's including any U.S. state, and the oldest population in the country. It's a remarkable change from the 1970s. I'm a little less optimistic. I think we have significant challenges in terms of our labour force.
The recent change by the government in respect of the temporary foreign workers was helpful to the processing sector, particularly in the Maritimes, where the challenge is even more acute. I think we have a real challenge. Groundfish is going to be more labour-intensive work than shellfish is. That means you're going to need to bring in workers, which is unlikely to happen, I think, to the extent that it's done in other jurisdictions.
I think we have a real challenge with the aging workforce, given the labour required to do groundfish, because it's labour-intensive as opposed to capital-intensive. Absent some structural changes in the fishery to achieve the year-long fishery that together we've alluded to here, my fear is that, as is the case with Norway and Alaska in the pollock fishery—Alaska is the world's largest whitefish fishery, I believe—the fish will end up in China for additional processing. We need high innovation. That takes a lot of money.
I would add one thing. We've mentioned Iceland. I think Keith mentioned it before me. I would say to the committee that if there were ever a parliamentary trip worth its merit, it would be the panel's visiting Iceland to see how things are done. They have groundfish and they have pelagics. They haven't had the shellfish. They had cold water shrimp, but not the snow crab. They have done things. We don't need to reinvent the wheel. We don't need to do everything they do, either, because we're unique. But we don't need to reinvent the wheel.