Citizenship and Immigration committee  If I may, I believe it's a community sponsor program where a community that exists in Canada can sponsor families and bring them from overseas. They'll sponsor them. They'll support them. They'll be their guidance.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The biggest problem we have in immigration is the process.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It takes forever to do anything when it comes to the federal government immigration process, and that's something we would like to stress, to do something about minimizing—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It should be less than 12 months. If you're going to wait two or three years, life changes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think the Atlantic pilot program is a great program that will do that. You talk directly to the employers and the employers are in control of who they want to bring in. I believe the pilot program is going to be very successful, and that's something we should probably continue

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We were never serious about immigration. I'm going to be honest with you. I come from a province that's dear to my heart, but we were never serious about immigration. We've talked about the aging population. I've been on immigration panels for the last 15 years, and it's only abo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I definitely believe that we should increase the number of immigrants allowed to come into Nova Scotia under the nominee program. We always call for the cap to be lifted, as Gerry mentioned. Let us do our own thing and see what we can do. If we're successful, we'll keep going. If

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I believe strongly in this, and we picked up on it in Nova Scotia. We have two different programs that deal with the international students so that after graduation they are allowed to work and apply for permanent residence. We're promoting this throughout the universities in Nov

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's easy: nine months. What's nine months?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  But nothing—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Nothing is so easy. You have to come here and get yourself familiar with the surroundings—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I came when I was 18 years old.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's right, but allow me to say this. There are examples everywhere. I came when I was 18 years old. I didn't even speak English. I went to university. There are stories like that. What I'm saying is that immigrants prove themselves—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We do have 7,000 international students in Nova Scotia. The international student is a big factor in our immigration programs.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The reality is that for Canadians the birth rate is not there anymore. The old families used to have four or five kids, but no more. That doesn't exist anymore. That's number one.