Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Again, welcome, Mr. Minister.
I have a number of questions to ask in my short period of time, so if you could keep your answers as brief as possible I would truly appreciate it.
The first issue I want to delve into is the skilled worker shortage in British Columbia and in western Canada. The people in western Canada are coming to discover that Conservative times are indeed tough times--if it's not the $25 billion that was wiped out on income trusts, or the $7 million plus that was wiped out to our tourism industry through the cancellation of the GST rebate.
Now we are, as you stated in your preamble, 3,500 workers short in Whistler, British Columbia, which is just a small community in western Canada, but an important one. What efforts is your department making with respect to extending the temporary worker visas from one year to two years? A lot of hotels and restaurants bring these people in, train them for a month, then eleven months later they have to ship out. What's your ministry doing with respect to that?