Citizenship and Immigration committee  That is an excellent question. You're obviously very connected to the rural components of your constituency. If a school dies, if a school closes, the community loses a lot. You're exactly right. The fact is that you have depopulation in some areas. I think looking at immigration as a way to make sure that these schools are sustained is critically important.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We are starting to have that conversation at the provincial level, and this would be the first contact we've had at a federal level. Definitely it's looking at this conversation and the fact that we, again, are 18% of the population. In order for us to be successful, we need to grow and look for opportunities.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, 100%. Actually, Olds College has tremendous immigrant populations, the agricultural schools. I think our education program in Canada is so great that it is one of our assets that we need to leverage and also to tie in those pieces to agriculture—the value-added, resource-based economy—and allow people to identify opportunities in rural Alberta, for sure.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would love to talk about the doctor support, but the vet conversation is a critical issue. We need to look at better ways to provide that service. Large animal producers in rural Alberta are having trouble keeping their businesses alive if they do not have a vet. That is a key part of the value chain, a key part of their ability to grow livestock, and they require those services.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for that. I think this really becomes about that rural economic development and that need for diversification. It's really having that conversation looking at immigration as one of the pillars for promoting economic diversification in rural Alberta for rural Canadians.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. We have inverted pyramids in rural Alberta. Without even looking at the statistics, I will tell you that our small towns—and any town that's under the size of 5,000—are a pyramid. You have larger aged population and the opportunities for the youth.... One of our conversations always is that we want our kids to stay home.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If there's one thing COVID has taught us, it's the importance of food security. At the same time, however, we are price takers not price givers, and you as a business person understand the realm that Alberta is in. We are looking for value-added agriculture that is global in nature, so processing of lentils and all of the other protein alternatives, and at the same time value-adding to our whole agricultural sector.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, it's really a situation where.... What is rural Alberta? The vastness of rural Alberta... I can probably speak to it as rural Canada. We are vast, and we should package it in such a way as to show what opportunities are here. When I talk about the farmland I own, in the perspective of other countries, I am a massive farmland owner based on the acreage I have.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  One of the views that has been taken by a few communities...There are some examples in Medicine Hat, Jasper, Red Deer, the RM of Wood Buffalo and Sylvan Lake. They've looked at inviting these people into their community. They're making it a community priority to be welcoming, and not just welcoming with gift bags and “Here's a logo”, but by welcoming them into the community.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You bet. I'll talk about two streams. The Alberta immigration nomination program, the AINP—people love acronyms—has two streams. It has a stream for workers and a stream for entrepreneurs. The Alberta opportunity stream, AOS, is a temporary foreign worker program that allows people to look for eligible occupations in the province of Alberta, and that's been successful throughout rural Alberta.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good afternoon. Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the committee. It's great to come from rural Alberta to talk about what I think is this critically important conversation today. Alberta is a province of immigrants. Rural Alberta is a province of immigrants. At the same time, it is our belief that all rural folks are rural folks.