Certainly. I hope it's okay that I'm going to be responding in English.
Thank you for the question. Talent attraction spans a number of issues that can help alleviate some of the shortages in Canada right now. I'll unpack a few of those recommendations. I believe everybody on the committee received a copy of our recommendations in both French and English.
Number one on attraction was to introduce a high-potential tech visa. This actually might be interesting for you, too, Michael. Happy birthday, as well.
This is the idea of giving the most in-demand professionals a path to Canada without a job offer in hand. I just want to make note of this because since the time of the writing, we've actually seen this piloted with the federal government on some of the solutions being offered now to Ukrainian nationals making their way to Canada. There is a bit of a precedent here in offering an open-ended work visa. That was one of the pieces.
We also propose the idea of launching a digital nomad strategy to make Canada a destination for increasing remote workers. Labour shortages mean a variety of things, but everybody is effectively working from home and this has actually now turned into a benefit for many workers. How do we attract some of that talent that may not be on Canadian soil?
Another is reviewing and revising the national occupation classification, which are the codes that effectively place individuals into certain categories of attraction and retention. The conversations with IRCC and ESDC have commenced, but that needs to be expanded on and accelerated.
Easing pathways to permanent residency is something that was talked about in several platforms in the previous election. We need to figure out what that actually looks like for international skilled labour coming to Canada with a guarantee that there's an opportunity to stay here longer term.
Expanding the recognition of international and alternative credentials is also something that we've talked about. Everybody learns differently now and there's a different suite of education that takes place across the globe. How do we encourage people who may not have...exactly the talent as we have identified it, but companies are looking to hire them here in Canada?
Finally, we recommend enhancing the global skills strategy immigration program. We're optimistic that with the right service standard, a targeted 48-hour visa processing time could be accomplished.