Human Resources committee  Good afternoon and thank you for the question. It is a critically important position because the EI Commission is tripartite. That's the basis and is the foundation of the governance of the EI Commission. We have stated that should remain as the centrality of the governance system, so in the absence of an EI commissioner for employers, there are consultations, there are discussions and there are decisions being made without the voice of business at the table.

Human Resources committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, vice-chair and committee members. I'm speaking on behalf of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. We represent 200,000 businesses across the country, across sectors and across sizes with our network that includes 450 chambers of commerce and boards of trade from coast to coast to coast.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The agreement in that is key, because the employer who brings in the employee or employees bears a burden for all of those administrative costs. I know that this has been brought up before, and I get that there are issues toward being tied to a singular employer, but if you come in bearing the cost, and no sooner does someone arrive than they've jumped somewhere else, that's problematic.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The answer is yes and yes. Housing is a critical issue across a number of sectors. There is currently a consultation. Our members take it very seriously. We take very seriously what has happened through the crisis as well. It is a big wake-up call and it has to go hand in glove with anything going forward.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Go ahead.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I will add that the Canadian Chamber of Commerce actually has a recommendation to insert an appeal process, which is currently absent, into the TFW program. I also want to highlight the point here about small and medium-sized businesses and administrative burdens. The restaurant sector is an example, but 98% of businesses across this country are small and medium-sized.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely anything that moves these processes online, and faster tracking processes.... We welcome many of the announcements from the budget this week. That's the biggest among them. Again, I'll come back to my original recommendation. Number one is a trusted employers program.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The short answer would be no. We'll see streams and approaches from sector to sector to sector, but across sectors and across skills levels, we need a little bit of everything. There was a question earlier about whether we should do new streams or new pilots. What we need is an overall approach that's flexible according to the community and the needs of the sector they are in.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, but I want to address your previous point as well.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Committee members, we often talk about this “either-or”, but it's a “both-and” moving forward. Labour mobility at a local level skills mismatch is a huge issue that's wrapped into labour mobility. That's from an individual motivations point of view, but it's also a regulatory burden between jurisdictions across our nation.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As the Canadian Chamber, it will surprise no one that we put an emphasis on the economic streams of immigration pathways. What we say about all pathways or all streams is that the importance of labour market integration and setting newcomers up for success from the outset would be the first point vis-à-vis that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, absolutely, and that's the important point: across sectors and across skills. They're not “low” or “high”. They're in demand. The other point here, though, from a chamber perspective as well, including the sectoral focus, and I've alluded to it, would also be a geographical one or an overlay and having a community focus as well.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's absolutely what's needed. I said that in our opening remarks. We have three buckets of recommendations for immigration writ large. One of them is on that devolution of the immigration selection process both to the provincial level and, more importantly, to the community level.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, vice-chairs and committee members. I am speaking on behalf of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, which is the voice of Canadian business. We represent 200,000 businesses across the country, across sectors and across sizes, with our network that includes 450 chambers of commerce and boards of trade across the country, including our colleagues from FCCQ, whom you just heard from.

Human Resources committee  Thank you.