Mr. Carrier, as to where that comes from, I attended a technical briefing offered by senior members of Immigration Canada on April 18, in an effort to better understand how the mechanics of this program would operate. As Hassan was pointing out, the minister is going to have the opportunity to make these ministerial instructions for the class of immigrants. We asked how they were going to determine which class of economic immigrant or skilled worker was going to receive the priority attention that is implicit in this bill. The response was that it was going to be something done in coordination with the provinces and the territories and with the employers' input.
We've already seen, in immigration changes over the last 18 months to two years by this government, the creation of the Canadian experience class. We've seen a phenomenal growth in the temporary foreign worker program. James Sutherland, the director of that program, on March 12 acknowledged that in 2007 there were 236,000 applications for guest workers received from employers. In 2006 we had granted permanent residency status to 251,000. There is enough data there to show that decisions on classes of immigrant workers are being made principally by employer groups.
When we pushed the question on April 18 and asked where the opportunity will be and how labour, for example, will be meaningfully involved at the regional level to determine the class of immigrants, the answer was not forthcoming because it hasn't been thought through yet.
Second, immigration, if we're seeing it in a comprehensive way, is not just about employers. It's not just about labour. There is the role of immigration and settlement agencies. There is the role of communities that want to be able to see their needs identified. These are other stakeholders that have to have meaningful input, and clearly, what we have seen so far is that the group that has the ear is the employer group. That is where that's coming from.