Industry committee  We would have to get our TFW colleagues to answer that.

Industry committee  The short answer is yes, we are looking at that. That's one of the key areas we are looking at, because it's a barrier to getting new entrants into the field, and in an expeditious manner. We're looking at structural initiatives. How do we simplify some of these testing procedures?

Industry committee  I do not have numbers in front of me. We've looked at a number of studies with some pretty significant numbers that have been released by different groups, such as the Chamber of Commerce and so forth.

Industry committee  Yes, there are many reports out there on the cost of it.

Industry committee  I'm unable to answer that question. Fraud and SMEs are a bit outside of the scope of ESDC's responsibilities.

Industry committee  Thank you for the question. From an ESDC perspective, we're more on the credential recognition side. Those types of questions would have to be directed at IRCC, as they take care of the language training component.

Industry committee  Yes, we are looking at barriers as a whole. We know there are systemic, work experience and language barriers. We could submit to the committee some of the key barriers that we have. That's why we're investing over $100 million of new money in the foreign credential recognition program: It's to help alleviate those barriers and make sure that we utilize skilled newcomers to their full potential.

Industry committee  I don't have details on the numbers. I know that we are looking at all areas of potential to contribute to the skills and talent and the labour market shortages that we have. Especially when you look at the potential for part-time work, how do we leverage all the knowledge and expertise that a more experienced worker has?

Industry committee  Yes. As we have an aging society, we know that as they leave, there will be gaps in the labour market as a result of just pure demographics.

Industry committee  I'm sorry. Is that in particular to seniors or in general?

Industry committee  I'm sorry, but I don't have those stats on me.

Industry committee  We would have to get back to you with more information from our colleagues. Part of the reason we made new investments is to facilitate and expedite some of these processes so that there are reduced times for employers and for workers as well.

Industry committee  Again, we would have to get back to you with some additional information on the temporary foreign worker program. Part of what we're doing through the other suite of skill investments we're doing is to prepare Canadians to the extent possible to meet the employment skills demands that we have in the labour market in order to support employers to be more productive and fully meet their goals as well.

Industry committee  We are meeting with our colleagues in Quebec. We are meeting with, in fact, all of our federal-provincial-territorial colleagues to discuss new measures that were in the budget and how to make sure that we're as complementary as possible. As we roll these out, we're trying to look at best practices in different jurisdictions so as to not reinvent the wheel and to allow those to be utilized in other jurisdictions as well.

Industry committee  Thank you very much for the question. We have recently launched the Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program, which does look at how we support a broader labour market context. The program really tries to be national in scope in looking at how we support economies of scale with small and medium-sized enterprises and how we can develop common tools for curriculum that could be used across jurisdictions to support workers.