Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think you're summarizing a situation that I have a high amount of agreement with. The reason you're gathering information about temporary workers is because there has been a decision, very poorly examined, very poorly analyzed, to run to the idea of temporary workers as a labour market solution in Canada at a time when the immigration system isn't working well and the economic achievement of immigrants who are already here is inexcusably poor.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's very much the heart of our position, that we could do a much better job of immigration and make temporary workers an almost unnecessary issue.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  And it would be much better for Canada's reputation abroad. But yes, what we seem to do here is repeatedly either have these sudden short-term solutions, such as the currently proposed amendments to the act, or chase after temporary workers, as ways to deal with something for which we should instead be going back to really assess how IRPA works and how to make the process work, as you've said, quickly and effectively for Canada and for prospective immigrants.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If I can, I'll just supplement that very quickly, a little bit, and I go into more detail in our full paper that accompanies this submission today. One of the things we've said would be that if as part of the LMO being issued by an employer there was a fee attached that employers had to pay that was equivalent to the per-person funding for immigrants, that would create a funding pool to ensure that instead of having to depend on the province, a whole range of services—related not just to labour market employment standards but to other settlement issues—could be made available through organizations that are expert at this kind of work, in an equitable way to all temporary workers.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's right.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Our point, and it would be about not only the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration but the overall approach, is that the enthusiasm for temporary workers is a dangerous and incorrect direction to go in. We do need to do something in the way of bandages to deal with this whole range of problems that we now have in our communities for the workers and for the rest of the community.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  [Inaudible--Editor] ...have to be very careful about making it either/or, because the reality is that situations that people from other places find themselves in here in Canada are so diverse and have so many complexities and intricacies. We're not doing a very good job with the speed and the skill with which we address refugee claimants, people inside the country who are seeking to have a claim considered; we've been ignoring the issue of undocumented people who are living, working, and continuing life in Canada; and we have far too long a waiting list of people outside waiting to come here.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Here is a quick response I would make. We're a community-serving organization that has more than 100 staff working with immigrants in the city, and I think a lot of our staff would agree that fear and isolation are two of the most dangerous issues in people's lives. They erode their own health and well-being and erode the well-being of the whole community.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We've had discussions, and even amongst my staff there's a range of views. The main view is that you can't continue to ignore it and that we need a careful look at ways to regularize these people's status.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I want to welcome you to Edmonton. There's been a dramatic change in Alberta over the past two years. When I drive up to Peace River country in the northwest to visit my grandchildren these days, whether I stop for coffee in Valleyview, for gas at Fox Creek, for lunch at Whitecourt, or at the mall in Grande Prairie to buy some gifts before heading on to their house, the probability is that the service people I'll encounter all along that route will be temporary workers.