Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Before I got into the detail of the amendments we're proposing, I neglected to mention this point. Given that this is a new model being proposed by the government, I want to say that our amendments are based on a concern we have that the government is rushing into these changes without adequate consultation and without the necessary checks and balances.
We've seen really the mess the government has made with the temporary foreign workers program. There were concerns raised by employers, by communities, and by workers who were concerned about their rights not being respected, about taking Canadian jobs. There were concerns expressed, and then the government had to amend what they had brought into place.
Our concern is based on the experience that when you rush into a new system and you don't have proper checks and balances, that's where you get into difficulties. Because we don't really have the information from the government about why they're making these changes, and based on what recommendation, and we don't see the transparency of monitoring the changes once they are made, we're concerned about what that's going to mean.
That's why we've proposed these amendments.