So many questions, so little time, but we'll get what we can.
I'll start—and probably finish, given the time—with a couple of questions that I think are very relevant for folks in my riding. I'll ask them both and I'll let you respond.
The first one is this. As we are all aware, with the review in February, I think it was, the Liberal government announced this one-time reprieve for those who are applying for seasonal workers for up to 180 days. I've heard many times from people in my constituency that because of the length of time it's taking to get an LMIA, three or four months, and based on when it was announced, that wouldn't allow anybody to be able to hire for that busy summer season in the areas where a need for those seasonal workers is occurring. I wonder if you could give us some indications as to whether there would be a way for the LMIA process to be speeded up so that it actually could be applicable to get someone, rather than just words from the Liberal government. That would be the first question.
The second one is with regard to the unemployment rate. There's a 6% cap on when low-wage workers can be used, and that currently is at 20% and moving to the 10%, of course. In my region I've got Banff and Canmore. They're very tourism-based economies. They form about 20% or 25% of their overall region. I know this has been put in place in other places in the past, but is there a way that this can be broken down where you have very localized economies?
Theirs is very different from the Alberta economy. There are many places in Alberta that are struggling right now, but theirs, being tourism-based, is doing quite well, and they're having trouble finding workers in their area.
I'm wondering if there's a way—and I know it's been done in the past in other areas—to break those regions down a little further so that people can access the program in areas where their unemployment rate is very different from the rate in the rest of their region.