Thank you, Mr. Dhaliwal, for the question.
There are a significant number of people who have been here for many years, who in many instances have children who are Canadian and who have been working and making a contribution and a difference to our communities. We have tried a few things over the past couple of years to provide status for certain individuals who currently don't have status. I'm thinking about the guardian angels program, which allowed frontline health care workers during the pandemic to become regularized to recognize the contribution they made. I'm thinking about the pilot program for out-of-status construction workers in the GTA and Hamilton. That has allowed more people to come out of the shadows and work in a regular way, where they're now contributing and paying taxes and are not afraid to seek such basic services as health care.
We're looking for ways right now to make good on the mandate letter commitment that the Prime Minister assigned to me, which was to expand on those pathways, to provide more regularization opportunities for individuals who are here making contributions and who have deep connections to Canada, and to allow them to live in dignity with permanent residence status. This is not an easy issue to sort through. It requires serious consultation with different stakeholders and provincial and territorial governments as well. We're going to continue to do our policy work to identify opportunities to provide pathways to permanent residence for some of the individuals you've referenced.