Thank you very much, Mr. Warawa.
Just to address the 21-month versus the 56-day issue, I initiated the LMO process in February of 2013, after having read all the documents and such on the website. At that time, you had to advertise the job position for three months. There was an error in that I advertised in Abbotsford. In fact, the job should have been advertised in Langley, so that cost me three months. It was my fault. [Technical difficulty—Editor] ...understanding what it was.
The LMO process in August of 2013 changed somewhat. It changed by virtue of the government's trying to make it a cost recovery system. There was an additional page to the LMO, which demanded payment of $750.
Apparently it was sufficient for the government to restart all LMO processes that had not been submitted by July 31. If your submission was received August 1, you were supposedly out of luck. Again, it took some assistance from, I believe, the minister at the time. I contacted the minister in Ottawa. The minister may have suggested that my suggestion was correct and that there should be some sort of weighing-in period, if you will—that it shouldn't be an 11:59 to 12:01 clock-driven change of process.
In summary, then, there were a number of things that caused this particular application and the LMO process to be delayed.
However, to answer your question about granting permanent residency under the TFW program, I don't particularly see that as being terrifically advantageous. Many of the TFWs wish to have permanent residency, but they're willing to serve the 24-month probationary period within... [Technical difficulty—Editor] ...calendar year to achieve their PR, their permanent residency.
The problem with the PR process, as I see it now and as I know from two examples first-hand, is that for the one lady it took 39 months from the time of her arrival in Canada before she was granted PR, and for the other lady, I believe it was 46 months. It's a point I heard from the gentleman from the Information Technology Association. The time is onerous for anybody trying to get temporary foreign workers in.
From the IT perspective, it's critical from their business standpoint. From the standpoint of finding an elder caregiver, it's crucial, because we don't want to hire a TFW to come to a funeral; we want to hire that TFW to come to provide elder care, which, as you know, Mr. Warawa, was the objective.