We're building a country with the most ambitious immigration program in the developed world, the largest relative intake of newcomers in the developed world.
I know a lot of Canadians thought it was counterintuitive that we should maintain these targets of a quarter of a million plus permanent residents in the midst of an economic downturn, but we did it because we believed in building this country through immigration. At the same time, there are a lot of jobs that not even new permanent residents are applying for. Just yesterday, down in the Byward Market, I was getting a bagel at a little shop owned by Chilean immigrants to Canada--they came here as refugees--and the owner, who I know, said to me, “Mr. Kenney, my husband and I are going to lose our business. We're here seven days a week, working full-time, and I can't find any Canadians to come and work for me for ten dollars an hour. How do we access the temporary foreign worker program?” That's a refugee to Canada who started a business, is an entrepreneur, and she can't find people who are willing to work here. So if she wants, she can apply for the temporary foreign worker program if she can demonstrate that Canadian permanent residents and citizens aren't working.
I think the worst thing we could do in an economic downturn would be to turn off the motor of tens of thousands of businesses that are growing and succeeding. I don't want to penalize employers because of a labour market shortage.
You know what? I understand there are problems with the temporary foreign worker program; that's why we responded with the regulations.