I'd like to further add to that. We have some members in Alberta, and I bring their example because they're the ones who have been bringing the majority of concerns to us. They don't have any employees right now. Some of their garden centres, some of their landscape companies, and some of their nurseries actually aren't operating in some cases.
Some of them have gone out of their way to pay over $5,000 to bring in a foreign worker for twelve months, and sometimes eight months, just to do the job. We have a lot of people in Canada who can do this work, and obviously we want Canada first. We have areas of high unemployment, so why not bring those people to other areas? Why not facilitate it?
The problem is that they're not there. Even the national association is bringing in a foreign worker. I'm not from here and...I'm joking; I am from here. But it's almost that bad, people. I make light of it, but it's true.
We are facing real issues, and a lot of our industry members are getting very frustrated because, again, we don't ask for handouts. It has never been a tradition for our industry. We are very entrepreneurial, and our only request is that we work together with government to find solutions. There are real problems, and people are going out of business, which obviously doesn't help anyone.
We're even thinking of doing work fairs in other provinces to try to facilitate this, but alone, as a not-for-profit association, we cannot accomplish this. We're looking for some solutions and some help and, again, to work together.
That's it for us. Thank you.