Senator Gold, the New Brunswick jobs report on the labour market outlook — from 2023 — projected that between 2022 and 2032, the province’s population and labour force growth will result in over 132,000 job vacancies, particularly in health care, construction, technology and energy. However, young people entering the labour force for the first time are expected to fill only 54% of those forecasted job openings. In order to bridge the gap between population and labour force growth, the remaining 46% will need to be filled largely through immigration. That means Atlantic Canada definitely needs a long-term approach to immigration.

The government has already made a number of immigration policy changes that are detrimental to our region. Will the government take regional needs into consideration for future changes?

The government always takes regional interests and needs as well as sectorial interests and needs into consideration.

The changes that the government announced over the last number of months were deemed necessary to ensure that those who do come to Canada are properly accommodated in all respects.

There is no doubt — we hear it from the agricultural sector and from the skilled labour sector — that these changes are posing challenges in many sectors. That is an unavoidable trade-off, unfortunately, as much government policy often is. These are temporary measures put into place for two years, as you know, in order to bring things into line. I’m sure that the government will be attentive to these needs going forward.

Thank you, Senator Gold.

I’m not disputing that some of those changes do need to be made. One thing I have noted is that the government often likes to talk about bad actors and gives examples by referring to certain colleges, but none of this is happening in Atlantic Canada. Instead of dealing with the root causes of those issues and punishing those bad actors, the government is also penalizing those who are abiding by the rules in good faith. Why do you believe that the government is doing this?

Thank you for your question. The government is focusing on the problems which have been identified. There has been a problem in many regions of this country with institutions of education that have misrepresented to students, to say nothing of the bad actors outside of education who literally sell the appearance of a job when none exists.

The government is, again, attentive to the differences and doing what it can to focus itself on —