Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I'll begin with Ms. MacKinnon.
We hear this time and time again. This is not the first time and you are not the first witness to say, “Listen. We could do so much better as an industry if we could just get labour.”
I'm always amazed. As a country that produces a lot of raw products, it seems like a travesty to me that we are not doing more value-added, in production, in slaughter capacity and all those things, as it relates to your industry. We're bringing in approximately 400,000 immigrants every year, first-time people working toward citizenship and permanent residents.
However, from every industry we talk to, time and time again, we constantly hear that the shortages are growing. In other words, they're getting bigger and bigger. This seems to be the never-ending issue. As a country we could do so much better if we could get these sector-by-sector plans in place to move forward.
You were talking about that, Ms. MacKinnon. We ship many products to the States that they finish. Do they have the same types of issues? Are they being more flexible? What are they doing with their immigration or their ability to get workers, or are they experiencing the same kinds of problems we're having?