They're hugely important. You hear of people who live in countries where the labour market does not perform. It does not offer a decent return on investment. Allowing people to move has significant impacts on poverty alleviation.
The Canadian program, while not perfect, is better than much of what's out there. The criticisms, while important.... I would never denigrate the criticisms, as they can make the programs better, but to some degree it's a matter of letting the search for the perfect destroy the good. Having lived in the United States and having at one time been American, I can tell you that if you want to, you can spend a little while with the U.S. system of bringing in temporary workers, and you'll begin to appreciate how good the system is that we have here in Canada.
I think it's unfortunate that Canadians really don't realize globally just how good this is. Even compared to Europe, on the treatment here.... Again, it's not perfect, but my God, you look around and you go, “Thank God there's Canada and thank God we have this as an example of how to do things right”.
Increasing the numbers of course is a good idea, and so is increasing the oversight and other things that are needed to go along with it. Temporary workers are hugely important. It's a great way to help communities.
One of the interesting ideas, which is something you'll see in a few weeks, is the idea of creating charter cities. Paul Romer, one of the leading economists on growth theory—at Stanford, NYU, and Chicago—has a concept for creating cities that are run according to outside norms and outside institutions. He's talking about creating a city in Honduras that functions like this. Rather than having the millions of Hondurans who have voted to leave Honduras and go to the United States, they can actually work in Honduras in a system that allows them to remain home and allows that talent to remain in Honduras.
A lot of countries in the Caribbean are promoting a similar idea, basically for having retirement homes and facilities in the Caribbean. It's cheaper. The Ontario health care system would be solvent if you could move people in retirement to the Caribbean and have them treated there, as opposed to in the higher-cost environment. Also, instead of taking nurses and doctors that are desperately needed in the Caribbean and flying them up to a high-cost environment in Ontario, you can actually have them remain in their communities, where they can continue to make a contribution.
Let's face it: where do you want to fly in the middle of winter? Winnipeg, or Jamaica or Cuba? It's an idea that's already taking place in the United States.