Citizenship and Immigration committee  I thank the honourable member for his question. We understand that this system is being replicated from a very successful model out of New Zealand and Australia. The numbers seem to indicate that over the past couple of years we've seen a rise in permanent long-term immigrants, from about 8,000 to about 20,000, just in New Zealand alone.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. Good afternoon, committee members. I bring greetings from the beautiful province of Nova Scotia as well as from Merit Canada's national president, Terrance Oakey. Merit Canada was established in 2008 as a united national voice for eight provincial open-shop construction associations.