Thank you.
Concerning the pilot program's criteria, since Aliments Asta is a Quebec–based company, we must use the provincial program involving permanent selection. However, it is currently very difficult to meet the criteria for permanent selection. In our case, some 30 Filipino workers have been unable to gain permanent residence owing to criteria related to language, age and education. The pilot program is probably very good for Canada, but we cannot use it. That is why we recommend discussing this more with the Government of Quebec. We have also submitted our recommendations to the provincial authorities.
Our initial concern is more about the limited number of temporary foreign workers than about permanent selection, but I think the criteria for permanent selection must also be a bit less stringent. We just need to be able to recognize years of experience. It must not be forgotten that we also provide training at the plant and, once those people have completed it, they become excellent workers.
We invest in those people's applications, but also in their training. For this to be profitable over the long term, we would like to keep those workers. The criteria, especially those relating to training, could really be reduced, which I think could enable us in industries to deal with those elements to a large extent.