Okay. I appreciate that.
I understand your concern. You don't want employees to be ripped from their communities with children in tow. In all cases I understand that's not realistic, but I think there should be some assistance for those people who are willing to move and are interested in moving.
I also have to point out the contradictions in current legislation. Right now if you're an operator in Alberta and you want to apply for a foreign worker permit, you have to go through a labour market opinion process, which means you have to prove to officials that there's no other unemployed Canadian who can do the job, so right now our operators in Alberta are forced to advertise for a minimum three-week period in other regions of the country. If you're saying it's totally unrealistic to expect people to move, then why do we have that requirement as part of the foreign worker permit process? You can't have it both ways.
I understand your frustration, because I remember they told us that they're frustrated because of the number of people moving out to Alberta. It's the employees who are moving out to Alberta, not the unemployed, and that's one of the issues.
If we extend what's happening in Alberta right across the country--and the demographics tell us that's what's going to happen--we have to find a way to look at the unemployed work force. Labour mobility might be providing transportation costs when people can commute just outside of their community, or they could temporarily move for a shorter period of time. We have to look at all the options. We're looking at a dramatic gap between jobs and people and we have to look at creative ways to fill those gaps. We have to look at all the different options and all the different structural impediments.
I appreciate what you're saying, but you'll have to appreciate that if there are jobs going begging and there are unemployed people in regions or communities nearby, we have to match them up. That's what we're saying.