Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the presenters.
I apologize in advance for cutting you short.
I live in Saint John, New Brunswick, and represent Saint John—Rothesay. I worked in Charlotte County in the aquaculture and fisheries industry for 15 years.
I think it's important as a committee that we get this right and take as wide a range of opinion as we can. I think it's no secret that the comments by the MP from New Brunswick Southwest about paying “whities” to stay home while brownies worked was a very controversial comment in my riding.
I have many questions, but I think I'll focus on Economic and Social Development Canada stats that show there were 3,390 leads given about non-compliance with the TFW program since April of 2014. That has only led to 340 inspections, roughly 10% of the total tips. Could that low rate of investigation have anything to do with the $4.5 million cut to programs involved in monitoring TFW during the last government?