Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Permit me, if you will, to editorialize for a moment. I know that all members of the committee will probably agree, because we're going to get to the report-writing stage of this, obviously, after a few meetings.
The title on the notice of meeting is “Anticipated Labour Shortages in the Canadian Transportation Sector”. I would suggest that if we're talking about a 30,000 to 50,000 shortage of truck drivers, it's not “anticipated”. It's now. I think we've heard that from the witnesses. It's just that “anticipated” implies perhaps the lack of a sense of urgency. I'm sure we agree, but I'm just going to make that point right up front.
We've heard about temporary foreign workers, the pathway to citizenship and encouragement of the immigration of skilled trades as potential solutions to the shortage of truck drivers we have currently. I spoke to businesses as recently as last Friday who've had issues getting skilled trade workers through the IRCC processes—as I know and we've all witnessed—and through the various federal government processes. What used to take three months or less is now taking 10 months, and it's often worse.
Maybe you can elaborate on how as a federal government we can reduce some of the hurdles and get workers in faster, whether it be through the temporary foreign worker process or the various other immigration streams.
That's for either the freight forwarders or the CTA, who referenced that, or certainly the Teamsters. That's for anyone who wants to comment.