Thank you, Chair.
Thanks to all the witnesses today. I very much appreciate the testimony and time.
I have been having a great time with this document. Thank you for this. This is the CCI's talent and skills strategy. I hope that my fellow committee members will dive into it like I did. I really fell into it. I needed some popcorn to go with this. Thank you for this important work.
I think the big aha moment for me in it was this notion that talent creation instead of job creation is the watchword as we try to build and grow our innovation economy here in Canada. That was one of those moments when you change your thinking, so thank you for changing my thinking on this. I appreciate that very much.
You acknowledge in it that government can't solve all the problems. For example, it's really clear that Canadian companies need to pay competitive wages to make things better, but we can do some things. The onus is on us to do some of the things you've suggested, I think.
I note this notion of piloting a high-tech visa, and that's fascinating. I note this idea about recognizing foreign credentials at a better clip. That's fascinating. It involves work with all kinds of different organizations, the colleges of physicians and surgeons, and others, to make that work better. More co-op placements are really good.
The thing I want to land on, and the questions are for Ms. Bednar and Ms. Hearn, is around the digital nomad strategy.
I want to get to you, but to paint the picture for my colleagues, I have a friend who is a start-up founder. She lives with her laptop in the U.K. She goes to Spain, travels with her laptop and does all kinds of things. About a month ago she got back to the U.K. to continue working in her Airbnb to start her company, but she was stopped by England's border services' saying, “What are you doing working here? You don't have a visa. We don't know that you're going to leave.” Canada's not alone in having an outmoded immigration system that doesn't allow for digital nomads.
I wonder if you could talk to us a little bit about what a digital nomad strategy would be in Canada.