We would argue that most of the skill shortages claimed by employers don't exist. Some of them do, a very small number. In a large number of categories that employers are claiming have a shortage, there's no real shortage.
One point I wanted to make concerning Madam Chow's point about cooks is that a simple way to get cooks is to pay them a higher wage. You'd be surprised how many cooks you'd get if you paid them a higher wage. People are prepared to work. Some people are just not prepared to work for minimum wage.
I think the employers are abusing the system. There's clearly documented evidence, which we have filed with the government, on the temporary foreign workers program; it is there.
The issue, too, about skill shortages, and I think my colleague just made the point, is that all of the immigrants we've been bringing into the country, and we're doing our own research on this, come here highly skilled to begin with; yet they can't find meaningful employment in the areas in which they're qualified.
If you simply bring in more people on demand because we say we need more skilled people, the question is whether you can get them to work in the categories in which you're bringing them in to work in the first place. The government has yet to respond to the failures of our policy; yet we're proceeding with more proposed changes that will meet employers' demands, rather than asking how we give meaningful employment to the people who are already here in this country and can't find meaningful employment.
So yes, our policy to some degree has been a failure, because it does not allow the immigrants who have the qualifications to work in the fields they're qualified to work in.