I would like to make a comment. Let's set aside the issue of compassion for a moment and talk about real economic hard numbers. Even with the tenuous economic situation we have here in Ontario, this morning's paper reports that building permits for housing units went up by 21% since the beginning of the year. The largest number of these folks, as far as we're concerned, work within the home-building industry.
Construction is now the underpinning of the economy in this province, and if there were a concerted effort to remove these people forthwith, the housing market would collapse. I don't think any of us wants that, so let's set aside the whole issue of compassion and stories.
We have a few stories of our own. The business manager of our local union--the largest local union in the construction industry in North America--was himself an undocumented worker who was normalized in the early 1990s and today leads the largest construction local union in the country.
I would put forward to the minister to please consider the economic impact of deportations on the home-building industry, which is currently fuelling the economy of this province and perhaps to some degree the economy of this country, given what has happened in the U.S.