Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Minister.
I just wanted to cover off your preamble, which I have to thank you for, when you said you're going to seek our help and guidance in meeting these challenges. I appreciate the ability of all parties to work together.
As I said the last time we met, I think the biggest challenges facing Canada are, first, our lack of skilled workers and, second, the ticking time bomb we have with our aging population. By 2012, 2014, we're going to have more people in retirement than we are going to have working for Canada.
Luckily, we have a solution at hand to the problem of our lack of skilled workers, and that is the 800,000 people who are waiting to come into Canada, 500,000 of whom are skilled workers, who take, on average, 58 months to get in here. But luckily, after 10 years of prosperity here in Canada, the government of the day has an enormous fiscal capacity to deal with this. Mr. Minister, I have to say that a $277 million increase in your budget is fabulous, and it's going to go a long way.
In my experience, in business and outside government, though, if I ever gave a manager, or if I was ever given as a manager, an increase to a budget of 33%, or $277 million, I'd sure want to make sure I had measurable goals and objectives. Last year, Canada accepted 262,000 people. The goal the department is setting for itself is 255,000, which is 7,000 fewer people than last year, with $277 million more in the budget. As a Conservative, how does that lack of fiscal responsibility...? How do you square the circle?