Thank you.
I want to talk about the annual numbers. You've made reference to the upcoming plan for 2011. I think we realize on all sides of the House that getting our immigration policy right is not only important to us socially and culturally, but it's also a pivotal part of our economic development.
Your department put out a news release in 2010 that said with the quickly aging population and low birth rates, 100% of our new labour growth will come from new immigrants within the next five years. And that's consistent with what a lot of groups are saying.
I've read statistics that say currently there are eight workers for every one Canadian retiree. That number is slated to go down to as few as four workers per one retiree. So we all recognize that immigration is important to our labour force. Yet I note that the proposed plan, the immigration levels plan, is relatively flat compared to numbers over the last five years and represents a significant reduction from the numbers that were admitted last year.
I'm just wondering, what's the department thinking about how we're going to meet our labour market needs over the next five years when we're going to require all that labour to come from newcomers to Canada, if we're keeping the same levels of access to our country?