First of all, let me address your comment.
In fairness, I know that a lot of work has been done on a lot of fronts. I know that you in particular have been involved. But on that whole notion of queue-jumping and the people who apply, let me just say that in fact for many of the workers we're talking about here there is no queue. Under the current system, they don't fit anywhere. If they want to come to this country, their only choice is to come the way they have come. Rightly or wrongly, that's the avenue they've taken. Quite frankly, I think that speaks to the inadequacies of our system, as you've suggested.
What would we like to see? First of all, let's get a handle on the normalization. Provided people do not pose any kind of security risk to this country and have no criminal record, and have shown themselves to be contributing members of society--as we say in our analysis, which I will be leaving for the committee--whether it be in the construction industry, the farming industry, or any other industry, let's deal with them and let's make them full citizens, with full participation in the economy and what this country has to offer. That would be good for us. A number of them are probably now fuelling the underground economy, and that's not a good thing. If they could become functioning members of this society, that would be a good thing.
Two, let's work the system so that it's organic, so that we can make changes as we need to, so that it isn't so rigid that people such as construction workers or itinerant farm workers can't even apply because the system doesn't fit--when in fact everything in the economy states that they do fit, and that they are needed. My own father came here as a logger, way back in 1951, because that's what was needed. They were clearing land up in the northern Ontario regions.
Let's make the system more responsive. Let's not get bogged down in whether or not people have millions of dollars to invest. Quite frankly, I can tell you that there are people who came to this country with nothing and amassed fortunes. They ended up hiring hundreds of people and being net contributors to this economy.
So let's make it a more organic, more dynamic system that's responsive to the needs of this country and the needs of these individuals.