Yes.
We ourselves do not export products; we export services. Our biggest obstacle is with Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Among the services we offer are linguistic services in more than 39 languages. For AAA projects, some clients will ask for language testers in their native language, and they cannot be found in Canada because we are sometimes dealing with second- and third-generation games. Because of the level of employment, people from Scandinavian countries do not come to Canada.
Since June, Citizenship and Immigration Canada has tightened its policy because some companies were abusing the department’s policies. Because of that policy, we have not been able to get temporary work permits for linguistic staff. We would have appreciated being informed before the policy was tightened. It would have allowed us to react by writing a letter explaining how the tightening of the policy was going to affect us.
From 1973 to 2013, a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) was free. After 2013, a fee of $215 was required. Since June 2014, that amount has been increased to $1,000, plus $155 for the permit and an amount of $346 for Quebec. If my need is for, say, 15% of my workforce to be foreign and if they must have a temporary work permit in order to work on the projects, it is going to cost me about $80,000 to get 52 employees, which is 15% of 350 employees.