Thank you, Ms. Grewal.
Yes. In fact, I will be pre-publishing regulations for public commentary, I believe later this month, with respect to the temporary foreign worker program.
That reminds me, I just want to respond to Ms. Chow's suggestion that we're increasing the targets or maintaining targets for that program.
We don't actually have operational targets for the program. It's an entirely demand-driven program, depending on how many applications there are for labour market opinions and work permits by employers. We only fulfill those LMOs at HRSDC or work permits at CIC if the employer can demonstrate they've advertised for the position in Canada and the position has gone unfilled, and the employer clearly demonstrates they are paying the prevailing Canadian wage rate for the temporary worker.
Having said that, I am aware that in a small minority of cases there are allegations or evidence of apparent abuse on the part of some employers. One of the things I intend to bring forward in the draft regulations is a provision where we will remove the right to apply for LMOs and work permits from employers who are repeat abusers.
Part of the challenge is that the labour rights of these individuals fall under provincial jurisdiction. Federally there's very little we can do to enforce those labour rights. Some of the provinces, such as Alberta, have significantly increased their budgets for monitoring and enforcement of labour market standards for temporary foreign workers. Other provinces, like Manitoba, have actually brought forth legislation governing the third parties who play a key role in processing applications for temporary foreign workers.
There is a growing focus on enforcement. We hope to take that one step further with our federal regulations that I will be proposing for public commentary later this month.