Mr. Chair, just to clarify, in 2006, while HRSDC processed 165,000 labour market opinions, in fact, only 112,000 temporary foreign workers came into Canada, and of that number, approximately half were high-skilled and half were low-skilled.
With regard to the selection criteria and avenues for low-skilled individuals to come into Canada, there are a number of avenues that are open to them. The first would be provincial nominee programs, where we have extensive documentation of strong provincial history, particularly in Manitoba and Atlantic Canada, with the nomination of low-skilled workers, as well as the arranged employment scheme, which provides bonus points to individuals who have secured a permanent job offer validated by colleagues at Human Resources and Social Development.
At the same time, Budget 2007, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, has announced the government's intention to create a new mechanism to allow temporary foreign workers, including the skilled trades and other individuals in technical occupations, to transition to permanent residents.
With regard to the question related to the previous government's activities on this file, work was indeed carried out in the past on possible initiatives to regularize the status of undocumented workers. In 2005, a draft memorandum of understanding with the undocumented workers coalition was developed at the working level. However, it was never signed and it was not endorsed by the previous government.