Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, absolutely. The communities that we work in are very open to immigrants. I think there's a recognition that everyone looks around them and everyone knows family members and friends who used to be here, but they're not here anymore. The recognition is that we love our communi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In Nova Scotia, for example, there is a mentorship program in place offered through EduNova. It's a mentorship program for recent graduates who are immigrants, or who would like to be immigrants. Our company has worked with five or six of them since January, and in every case th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Here's my opinion. Are there jobs? Absolutely, there are jobs. We can't find enough workers to fill the jobs we have right now, and we're talking about rural coastal communities. I think a question came up about why people left, and why the population is declining. You started yo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There's something that I was going to say, and I can relate to it personally. Some of my friends comment that there are no “good jobs”. What is a good job? That's a relative statement, but at the time, currently, do we consider a fish plant job a good job? I think it's a good job

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I would agree with that. Bringing in immigrants would solve the issues of the community first, before it solves any issues of labour that we have within our industry. I think it's more important to strengthen the community rather than solve any labour needs that a business h

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, we absolutely would not be able to meet our labour needs with that one third of the workforce. My point in mentioning why we have a third, a third, and a third of employees is that this is how the reality has been within our industry. That's how it has happened. Now, in plann

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Finally, there was increased wages and benefits. It's hard work and the labour market is competitive in some aspects. Why should they make the same doing difficult fish plant work, rather than something else? To summarize—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good afternoon, committee. Thank you for allowing me and my company the opportunity to speak about such an important topic. I feel that, regarding the topic, our company is well qualified to speak on the matter, specifically in terms of our experiences with labour and the shortf