Public Accounts committee  It's a counterfactual proposition that's difficult to analyze.

Public Accounts committee  There are some efforts under way. There are some discussions with academics on the possibility of doing it. There is no silver bullet for looking at it. I would say, though, that—

Public Accounts committee  We're looking at the available wage data and what the trends and the impacts on wages are of temporary foreign workers. Our policy is that they have to pay at or above the prevailing wage. We know that temporary foreign workers represent about 0.5% of the labour force, so the imp

Public Accounts committee  No. It's generally across the economy, because there are a number of sectors where TFWs are—

Public Accounts committee  They have to have demonstrated efforts to recruit. There is a time requirement for the period, and they have to document what Canadians have applied and the reasons they were not—

Public Accounts committee  We are required to do a study, a program evaluation. As the deputy noted, one is planned for 2018.

Public Accounts committee  The way the wage requirements work in the program is that we look at the prevailing wage in the seafood processing sector—

Public Accounts committee  And a Canadian. We look at the wages paid across the sector including Canadians and TFWs.

Public Accounts committee  No, that's not just the fisheries sector. I don't have that number in front of me, but we do have data available on the number of temporary foreign workers and foreign nationals.

Public Accounts committee  That's one of the reasons we impose a time limit on the temporary foreign worker. The labour market impact assessment for a low-wage worker is generally one year in duration. If the business circumstances changed dramatically, and there were unemployed Canadians in that space, th

Public Accounts committee  It is part of the process to look at the next cycle of applications for an employer. We have committed to looking back. We had a limited window that we looked back at. In response to the Auditor General's recommendation, we lengthened that window up to 12 months previous.

Public Accounts committee  It's our fee. We charge the $1,000 fee per—

Public Accounts committee  Immigration has its own fees for immigration. For the TFW program, we have a $1,000-per-position fee, which as I said is going to be waved in the future for middle- and low-income family caregivers.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. I would make a few points. Labour market information, as we've noted earlier, is essential to our analysis, but at the end of the day, labour market analysis is not going to guarantee that an individual shows up willing to work in the right place, at the right compa

Public Accounts committee  We've seen about a 45% reduction in the program and about a 75% reduction in low-wage workers since 2013. There's been a significant diminution of demand in the program, and we take some comfort in that because we're not seeing a trend in the other direction.