I have a comment on that very good question.
Certainly you can't control everybody. You can't control everything that they're thinking and their motives for bringing in workers. We see it; we see it all the time. Workers are brought here, and they pay big fees. They will pay those fees because they simply want a job. They're used to making $2,000 or $3,000 a year wherever they're working. In our experience, most of these workers are from the Middle East and have been working on the various oil projects. They come here and make, in some cases, up to $35 per hour. That's a salary of $80,000 a year. That's a life-changing experience, so they will pay that.
The problem is that when they do come here, the employers are taking advantage of that, and the recruiters overseas are obviously trying to profit from their coming to Canada.
I don't know what the answer is, to be honest. I think it comes up to companies like TC Hunter. They are working in Alberta and trying to screen out these people, because there is absolutely no benefit in anyone having to pay fees.
We let the advocate know if we hear of any cases. We're the first to make a call to Immigration if we hear of a company operating like that.
I'll mention one of the concerns we have in Alberta. Obviously you know it is illegal in Alberta to charge a fee for an Alberta company. You are probably aware that in Ontario it's legal to charge a fee, so many of these companies are surfacing in Ontario, and we see it.
When we get a phone call from an Ontario recruitment firm, the very first question we ask is what they are charging as fees. They won't go into it and they won't explain to you, but it is legal there. A lot of them will set up their shop there--wherever they are, in their basement--and then they will be the filter for the workers coming into Ontario. Usually they'll come into Ontario through Pearson, and then they'll get mobilized to go on from there.
That's one way of catching them. If they're operating in Ontario, that's probably a good place to look.