Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Jan. 30th, 2008

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Vulnerability?

[Les Linklater]

At risk of exploitation or abuse.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Sorry, doesn't that cover everybody who's coming, the 116,000?

[Les Linklater]

These provisions would be available, but as the provisions of the bill lay out, officers would be required to interpret instructions that the minister would issue that would link specific circumstances—

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

But this Bill C-17 will in fact be an administrative bill that will look after the 113,000 temporary work permits that were issued last year. This bill would affect them, would be administrative.

[Les Linklater]

The bill could affect any temporary foreign worker who would apply.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Okay. Then when the minister is saying that we're putting this bill in order to protect the vulnerable, she's referring to the 66 or the 100 exotic dancers who came in; she's not referring to the 113,000 people who applied for work permits?

[Les Linklater]

I believe the minister is referring to those workers who are at risk of abuse or exploitation.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Okay. Mr. Linklater, sir, how many people of the 113,000 would you say are at risk of exploitation?

[Les Linklater]

It's hard to quantify that number. Each case is assessed on its own merits, and it varies from year to year and from situation--

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Well, last year, sir, in 2006, how many did we have?

[Les Linklater]

How many work permits were issued?

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

No, no. How many of the work permits that were issued were to people who would be exposed to exploitation?

[Les Linklater]

I can't give you a quantification of that, sir. It's based on—

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

So we have no figures of how many people Bill C-17 would actually affect, besides the exotic dancers.

[Les Linklater]

We do know that there are approximately 20,000 agricultural workers who come in every year. We do know that there are about 6,000 live-in caregiver applicants who come in every year.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Are they exposed to exploitation?

[Les Linklater]

There might be a potential among those populations that there could be employers who would exploit or abuse the temporary foreign worker.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

How would the officer make a determination as to how this farm worker would not be exploited? What information would the officer have in the post in, I don't know, Kingston, Jamaica, that this person might be exploited?

[Les Linklater]

The provisions of the act as proposed here would allow the officer—

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

How much time do I have?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

You have one minute and 30 seconds.

[Les Linklater]

—based on the individual circumstances of the individual in front of him or her, to understand whether or not, based on their work experience—

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

But again, Mr. Linklater, sir, I find it hard to believe that we're talking about exploitation of a farm worker when the officer will not have any information in front of him or her when they make the decision.

[Les Linklater]

As the bill lays out, sir, the minister would issue instructions where objective evidence is available that officers would need to take into consideration in making their assessments.