Thank you.
I have three questions that I will give to you in one shot. I actually have them written out, and if they get too long I will just pass the notes to you, and I know you'll respond in writing.
The first one really is about temporary foreign workers. Your planned target is in the tens of thousands. I have a report from the Human Resources folks documenting examples from the live-in caregiver program of employers illegally confiscating employees' passports and other legal documents. And there are reports of verbal and emotional abuse and negligence and sexual assault, which are not uncommon. Some provincial employment standards allow the employers to pay a training wage for the first 500 hours that is lower than the minimum wage. There is evidence to suggest that temporary status fosters vulnerability to abuse, and that the workers accept unacceptable working conditions for fear of unemployment or deportation. The pressure to get a good work record deters workers from reporting abuse.
On the farm workers program, workers pay into EI but are not qualified for EI. They pay into the CPP, the Canada Pension Plan, but are not aware of most of those benefits. They have long working hours without rest or overtime pay, and there is inadequate workplace safety training, inadequate access to medical care, and poor housing, poor community relations, and verbal and physical abuse.
In terms of the pilot project for low-skill occupations, again, having low-skilled domestic workers earning low wages means poor labour market outcomes for them. There is a document showing the consequences in terms of increased emergency medical care, rising crime rates, etc.
The reason I put all of this in writing is that it comes from a report from Human Resources, and it is a problem.
So I really have two questions. What is your plan to protect the most vulnerable? Second, there is the Juana Tejada law, which you are familiar with. Sadly, she passed away. It's about the second medical examination people have to go through once they qualify for landed immigrant status in Canada under the live-in caregiver program. So that's one whole area for you to focus on: temporary foreign workers.
The second one is really the same question I asked you the last time you were here. It's about the global case management system. You probably know that the Auditor General, in her November 2006 report—before you became the minister—said that they threw in all this money. It's $48 million over budget and two years late. Now, the last time you were here, you requested $31 million on top of that. And this time you're asking for another $24 money. So are we throwing good money after bad?
And when can we get a status report about what's happening to all of your IT projects?
Does the global case management system connect with the MyCIC, the application files, so that we can really track who we want to deport and what's happening to the applications? So that's a whole area, if you can address that.
This is the last one. Two weeks ago when you were here, you asked for $2 million for your advertising budget. This time you're asking for another $3 million in the supplementary estimates (C). That is $5 million, Mr. Minister, $5 million. So the supplementary estimates (B) were for $2 million, plus these supplementary estimates (C) for $3 million. What are you doing with this money?