Human Resources committee  As I said at the outset, it's a fairly large program in terms of the number of employers, 46,000 employers. Absolutely there are situations where an employer will not do, is not doing everything needed to make sure that Canadian workers are hired first, to make sure that Canadian workers stay on as long as possible.

Human Resources committee  If it becomes common practice, absolutely. If there's a blatant violation, there are tools in place, and we are putting in place additional tools to make sure there are no abuses of the programs. Nobody wants that kind of abuse of the program.

Human Resources committee  I think the AG report certainly identified areas of improvement, as is very common when the AG does a review. I think the government has responded directly in a number of ways to those recommendations and—

Human Resources committee  I think it will take us until after the meeting to get the numbers. Let me say that I would disagree with you that it's a common problem, but there are isolated incidents. I would add that as part of the connecting Canadians with available jobs strategy, one of the things the government did was to link the record of employment, the layoff records, with the application for the temporary foreign worker program, so that if we see that there have been recent layoffs, those employers will not be able to get a labour market opinion.

Human Resources committee  The specific requirements of the transition plan are still being developed, but absolutely it's not going to be a one-size-fits-all; there's going to have to be a recognition that in some cases it will take a long time to develop the domestic labour supply for that. As we know, some qualifications take many years to acquire.

Human Resources committee  We perfectly agree with the statement that you want to make the jobs available to Canadian workers first, and that's—

Human Resources committee  Thank you for that question. As I said before, this is a part of a larger framework of measures to support that Canadian economy. When we look at the temporary foreign worker program, we don't look at it in isolation. We look at it as part of a larger package to try to make the economy more productive so that the skills are there for employers to meet the needs of the economy, and at the same time to try to connect Canadians, domestic workers, with those jobs.

Human Resources committee  Sure. Let me say that revoking the permit or suspending the labour market opinion process is a tool of last resort. What we'd like to do is signal to employers exactly what the rules are and to make sure they understand what is a legitimate use of the program, and when there are situations where the government thinks this is not appropriate use.

Human Resources committee  Yes, thank you.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. The legislation only refers to the user fee exemption. It in itself doesn't address the structure of the user fee, how much it will be, whether it's one fee, or all the associated rules, so when the regulations come out, they will provide all the details, including, I am confident, protections to ensure that it isn't passed on to the individual.

Human Resources committee  The idea for a user fee is that we would be leveraging a user fee that reflects the true cost, all the costs associated with running the program with all the integrity and protection measures that are in place. In that respect, there'll be a matching. As part of establishing the user fee, there is a review going on in terms of all the costs that are required, and all the costs that will be incurred.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for that question. The TFW program is a large program in the sense that we're getting a lot of applications, and a lot of employers are using it. I think around 46,000 employers used it last year. We're getting a lot of applications. The vast majority of those are employers who would prefer to have Canadian workers, who go through significant efforts to get Canadian workers, and realize that the temporary foreign worker program is a program of last resort.

Human Resources committee  This is an ongoing effort to reduce these abuses. The government has implemented a series of changes. In my opening remarks, I went through a list of what has been going on. Since I've been working at HRSDC, there've been ongoing changes in the program to try to enhance the integrity of the program.

Human Resources committee  Well, you asked a series of questions, and then you moved on and were talking about the accelerated labour market opinion program. I will say that it is not correct that this is a rubber-stamp process. The accelerated labour market opinion was a more efficient way to process. It had the exact same requirements as the regular process in terms of the range of things that employers need to do, including the advertising period.

Human Resources committee  Yes. Let me just add a few more things. Sorry, but I was speaking a little fast so that I could get in the full answer. It's true that it was a faster way to process, but the rigour is certainly there. It's just different. It works through an attestation model, much like how we fill out our tax forms.