Minister, welcome. We are pleased to have you here.
I notice from your opening statements you have a great deal of focus on the need for new workers, driven by the Canadian economy. It's with this in mind that I'm going to pose a question to you.
When we changed our new points system in 2002 it really threw things out of whack. It made it much more difficult for people the economy needs to get into this country and work in this country legally. I'm talking about the undocumented workers. The fact we have so many undocumented workers, estimates being from 200,000 to 500,000, is driven by the fact that people who the economy needs aren't getting in by the points system.
Minister, we filed a report from this committee last summer and we wanted a moratorium on undocumented workers until such time as we get our points system rejigged. The committee also recommended that the resources that were being used to get rid of undocumented workers would be redirected at dealing with some of the very serious criminal cases we have in Canada, people who everybody wants to see deported.
This whole issue has been a real problem. It was a priority of the previous minister to get something done and fix it. I am sure there were reports prepared for him by the bureaucracy, and all that seems to have come to a stop.
Mr. Minister, you wrote us a letter, along with Minister Day, in response to our report. I read the letter. You suggest we get public input from across Canada and not just Toronto. I want to let you know that the citizenship and immigration committee in the last number of years has travelled the country twice, and the message we heard was coming from right across Canada; it wasn't just Toronto, but right across Canada. So in regard to whoever writes your letters for you, Minister, I suggest you get an upgrade in that department. But the fact of the matter is that's the input we got from across the country.
In your statement you document very well the need for things like somebody who will work on a ski lift, somebody who will change beds. Those folks are not coming in under our current points system. So my question I put to you, Minister, is why don't you give Canadian employers a break and start a program of regularization for those who have proven themselves and helped build the Canadian economy?