Yes. In general, I think that should be done for citizenship policy.
The economic immigration statistic that you mention goes back, if I remember correctly, to a study—not one that I did, but one that I reference—called “The Leaky Bucket”, a very memorable title.
I interpret that to be actually quite an alarming fact. Economic immigrants are chosen because they wish to invest here. They have offers of jobs already. The skills and so forth that they bring, or the level of education and skills training brought to the country, are those that we need. They're vital to us.
If they are leaving, I think that speaks to a very serious problem that we need to address and look into. Part of the problem is undoubtedly connected with that feeling of scarcity and of strain on infrastructure that we have all felt—especially people of my generation—over recent years. Certainly, I think more could be done to retain the highly skilled and well-trained people who wish to come here and integrate, and the fact that we don't is a problem.
Again, some sort of solution needs to be found. Yes, it may be wise to build it into Bill C-3, but it must be built into the immigration system in general.
