Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, witnesses, for coming today.
I would like to start off with my first question for you, Chris, and I might just stick with you the whole time. I'll see where the time goes.
I'm looking at a CBC article dated March 2016, I believe. It talks about fish plant issues with temporary foreign workers, and I'll quote it as follows:
“We've heard from groups across Canada that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program needs to change, including from businesses. A small number of businesses in certain sectors tell us they need more flexibility...”.
...Atlantic seafood processors were lobbying government to allow them to hire more foreign workers. Dennis King, executive director of the P.E.I. Seafood Processors Association, said a deal was reached at the end of last month after the Maritime Seafood Coalition met with officials in Ottawa.
The article talks about how the TFW program has been changed and how now there's no further limit on how many TFWs you can hire. That's what the article states.
I'd like to use a comparison. In looking at StatsCan and seeing what the actual unemployment rate is in P.E.I., certainly, as a person from British Columbia, I would say that rates as high as that would be alarming. I believe that the unemployment rate in P.E.I. is 12.1%, and that the other regions in the east are around 8.5%, 9.5%, and 10% in their unemployment rates.
Again, in my riding, it would be alarming that we would even consider hiring temporary foreign workers with an unemployment rate that high. I guess I would just ask you this. Canadians will ask this question. There seem to be enough Canadians to fill those jobs in the east. Why are they not filling these jobs?