Mr. Speaker, I always welcome the siren song of seduction. The first example of the siren song of seduction is a compliment, backhanded though it may be. However, without undue immodesty, that it was probably in one of these cases well deserved.
The member is probably recalling, as I was saying earlier on, the moneys that we invested in enhancing the program to recruit more and more students to study in our country. We were aiming for an additional 40,000 per annum to come and take advantage of unused capacity in this country, to bring the amount of money they would normally invest in their own education. Keep in mind that foreign students would come here and pay their own way to the tune currently of about $1.5 billion annually. Therefore, we would make that kind of investment, and we did.
We thought of establishing a plan that would see the growth of workers who would meet an immediate need. Some people call them seasonal workers, but I prefer to think of them as temporary workers. We worked with all the sector councils, put money into those sector councils to ensure that people would be brought in so the number would increase from 106,000 to about 150,000. I am happy to hear the government admit that the plan actually worked.
In terms of whether we would want to continue to enhance that, I would ask the member this in kind. Since he is singing such sweet songs, perhaps he would want to reflect on whether he would prefer my plan or whether he would applaud the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration plan?