Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  One of the things that we found is working for us here in Nova Scotia is a program called Texploration. It's a program that got started several years ago, designed for the junior high level. It makes presentations to young women to try to attract them into a career in the skilled

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The cranes were built overseas. I'm not sure how they were done. You could be correct. They are brought over on a barge and then landed in Halifax.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In that case, there was certainly a breakdown in how the program was supposed to work because there was no consultation. The employer, in that instance, was a firm. The cranes were built in China. They were sent over here, and the Chinese firm wanted to use the Chinese workers to

Citizenship and Immigration committee  To date, we haven't had that problem here in Nova Scotia. I know the problem does exist in Toronto, and it certainly does exist in Vancouver. Again, if there's a way these people can come into the country and become landed immigrants, I would much prefer that than on a temporary

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's correct.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The problem is not with the ability to move people across the country. The problem is the financial restraints people have in moving from place to place. So my point was that if we could put a program in place so they could claim some of these expenses and perhaps get a rebate on

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. Actually, we have a very mobile workforce. As I mentioned earlier, we are sending people to the west. Many--

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, that's right. I'm using the west because that really is the focal point for sending workers now.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. The way the system works now is that once the local area people are working and the need comes for more skilled people, they will call the other areas and ask if they have unemployed people they can send. Then we will dispatch those unemployed people. The problem is that i

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's only if it's a permanent move. If you're going out there to work for six months in the oil field, there's no reimbursement.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. Moving forward, I think there are some steps that could be improved upon when we're looking to determine whether or not our country needs to bring in temporary foreign workers for the construction industry. One I mentioned briefly before is the consultation process wi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Two minutes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good morning, and thank you for taking the time to come and listen to our submissions. First of all, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Cordell Cole. I'm the president of the Mainland Nova Scotia Building and Construction Trades Council. We're a group that was formed in 19