Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome you to your House of Commons. We are very pleased to welcome you here.
I will say a few words in my mother tongue. Welcome.
The topic we are discussing is a current issue in your provinces. However, I can tell you that, in Quebec, we are facing exactly the same reality. We have production companies that need workers.
Temporary workers are hired to harvest crops, including fruit and vegetables, but also in many pork processing plants. In Quebec, we joke that we have more hogs than people. The annual hog production is around 7 million and the province has about 7 million people.
I can repeat that. There are more pigs in Quebec than citizens. My colleague, Mr. Cuzner, is always accurate on that issue.
But seriously, we face exactly the same challenges. There are two points here: those who work on the farms and those who work in the processing plants.
I want to get some information from you.
First of all, Madame Langner and Mr. Janzen, I would like to hear you explain why we have to hire people from outside Canada. I know that in your city there is no unemployment. We all recognize that 2%, so everybody works there, I suppose. In your province it is 6.4%, or 6.1% in Winnipeg, so there is a good situation, but how can you explain that in Canada, where not everyone is working, we have to attract people from other countries? How can you explain that in your specific area?