At this standing committee, look at how to reform the temporary foreign worker program. I feel, based on our experience working in several manufacturing sectors, that the following two corrective actions need to be addressed with urgency to stimulate and improve the hiring of workers in the Canadian manufacturing sector.
First. the labour market opinion evaluation process must be reviewed for prevailing wage rates, and it should be aligned with the specific industry economic indicators of costs incurred to build the product, thus falling within the profit margins. One example of such a program already existing in the Canadian manufacturing sector is the agricultural temporary foreign worker program. The government must do its part as a key stakeholder in the wage discrepancy.
Number two is, abolish the $1,000 Canadian labour market opinion fee. The manufacturing sector itself is very limited in B.C. Over the years, the so-called manufacturing hub that was once very prevalent in this great country of ours has been moved to Mexico and is growing by the day. Eighty percent of auto manufacturing has moved from Canada and the U.S. to Mexico, and more is moving tomorrow.
To improve the manufacturing sector, the federal government must engage itself to reform the temporary foreign worker program to create the element of relationship between itself and companies such as Coast Spas. If it fails to act in a timely manner, that could result in companies such as Coast Spas and many other companies in the manufacturing sector moving out of Canada to another more labour-friendly location, ultimately losing thousands of jobs in the Canadian manufacturing sector, involving suppliers, manufacturers, and other government organizations providing the support to the very same companies as us and many others.
I apologize for making this long explanation, but I hope my insight has been useful to the committee. At this time, if there are any questions, I would be more than happy to answer them.