Generally, in our sector, we welcome the Canada job grant because it puts the money in the hands of the businesses. In light of the skills shortage, we've been supporting it. It's very close to one of our recommendations in our pre-budget submission—to provide a tax credit. But in the end, it's the same purpose.
What I hear from our members is that those who are outside the big cities may be facing more temporary foreign workers, because they have a more difficult time attracting workers. What I hear a lot is that most of our members would rather train someone than go through temporary foreign workers, because the TFW program can take up to six months to get done, and it costs approximately $10,000 in fees associated with the labour market opinion.
One thing that we didn't like in the budget bill, as I mentioned at the finance committee, is that the government wants to exclude the labour market opinion fees from the User Fees Act. That, to us, is a bit concerning, because then you don't have a framework with regard to how government will set the fees for labour market opinion.