I completely agree with you. It's not just about the number.
The debate has been about the number and about the kinds of immigration. It has always been that way. It will always be that way.
We seem to have done a pretty good job. It's experimental, right? Canada accepts more immigrants than does any other western country in the world, so the society ultimately built by doing so is a bit of an experiment. But I think we would agree that the experiment has been a great success so far. Let's hope that continues, but let's not take it for granted.
I know that the department does a statistical evaluation whereby they seek information from the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency to look at how the cohort is doing compared to how the host community is doing. I've read that the average income of the newcomers over the last eight years, let's say, is not what it used to be. It's not as good as the income of the host community. It's not as good as it used to be.
There needs to be a constant refinement of the quality of applicants we're seeking. I'm referring mostly to the economic stream, of course, not to the family reunification stream, because you really don't have any control over that stream, as there's no assessment for education, language ability, age, or any of those things.
I agree with you: there needs to be a constant focus on that. It's very hard to speculate because it takes two, three, or four years to go through the pipe to get a federal skilled worker here, and what are the economy and the needs in the labour force going to be like by the time that person is here? If they are 24 when they apply, but 28 by the time they settle.... Also, initially, they might not settle very completely. They might go back to their country.
The permanent resident card requires them to be here only 40% of the time, so there's a lot at play here to develop a mixture. I think the department should have very good demographers and economists working with them to achieve this. I'm not an expert in that field. I'm a carpenter, if you will. Give me a client and I can get them into Canada, but I don't really focus on the quality side. The department needs to have a really full gaggle of demographers and economists, I think, to study that very point.