Agriculture Committee on May 22nd, 2020

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Yes, we just adopted a policy to maintain the status of workers whose permit has expired until it has been renewed.

Just to follow up, as I said, there is a principle in place that if a worker has an expired visa, we are undertaking to renew that visa as quickly as we can to allow them to remain in Canada and to find that next job. That was a policy we just introduced in the last week and a half.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Perron.

Now we have Mr. MacGregor for up to six minutes.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Welcome, Minister, to our committee. It's good to see you here to give us an update on how your department is dealing with COVID-19, specifically as it relates to agriculture.

I wanted to touch on the agri-food pilot program as well. I think a lot of us welcome the fact that there is a pathway to permanent residency for many of these temporary foreign workers.

I'd just like to get your comment, Minister. How do you respond when an organization like the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change raises concerns that the program isn't designed very well for workers, that maybe it gives employers too much leeway—because these workers are very much essential—and that maybe the education and language testing requirements are a little too stringent? How would you respond to some of those concerns that have been raised?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I'd begin by emphasizing, as you did, the significant contribution of migrant workers, particularly when it comes to ensuring food security. We are always open to having constructive conversations about the way in which we can improve the program and ensure that it's meeting the objective of recognizing those contributions, the value of the work on farms when it comes to food security, by providing a clear way in which they can establish permanent residency in Canada.

Mr. MacGregor, as you know, this is a three-year pilot. By its very definition, it is an experiment, but one that we feel confident and optimistic about, because it is a step in the right direction in acknowledging the importance and the vitality of the work that migrant workers provide.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Yes, and in acknowledging that work, I think COVID-19 has laid bare some of the weaknesses that we have in our system. Our agricultural system has a great reliance on temporary foreign workers, and that's obviously a very weak point when governments around the world start to shut their borders. We've done well to try to address that, but what I'm interested in, Minister, is going forward. What kinds of lessons is the government learning from this? How will you build resiliency into the system so that when another shock comes, we may not be in as bad a position?

Really, the theme is resiliency. What kinds of steps do you think you can take to build resiliency into the system so that we can withstand future shocks?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

One is by ensuring that we continue to manage our borders and place the health and safety of Canadians as our paramount concern, but also that we also have targeted exemptions for temporary workers, migrant workers, who are allowing Canadians to continue to get access to safe and healthy food. This agri-food pilot is an initiative that supports all of those objectives and recognizes the relationship between workers year over year to Canada.

The way we create that resiliency is by continuing to measure our success in this program and by measuring our needs within the economy, particularly when it comes to the labour shortages that we see on our farms and among seafood workers, and by leveraging the opportunities for those who are abroad who have the experience, who have the skill sets and who want to come and put their shoulders to the wheel, if you will. I'm confident that there are many ways in which we can ensure the long-term resiliency of these initiatives.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Yes, and I think agriculture and agri-food are going to be a big driver of our economic recovery.

When I met with Food and Beverage Canada in February, they talked a lot about their need for skilled workers. They project that Canada will be 65,000 jobs short by the year 2025. That's a really important part, and it's related to COVID-19.

What incentives will government put in place to make sure we have a skilled labour force, especially as our food processing plants upgrade to become more mechanized, with more automation? You still need skilled workers to service those machines to ensure that they're running on time.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

We sure do.

I want to take a moment to acknowledge that as we come out of the pandemic, we are also concerned about Canadians who are unemployed. We want to be sure that we're supporting them in this period through a variety of financial assistance programs, which have been well received, and are allowing them to retool so they can bounce back and get back to work, because we need to ensure that our economy gets moving again.

Where we can't do this, and where in our economy we continue to see labour shortages, I want to assure members of the committee that the temporary foreign worker program will be there as an important lever. We will align those shortages to the skills and experience that we find abroad, as we have done with farming and food security. I believe that will be very much a part of our ability to recover after we are on the other side of COVID-19.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Quickly, Minister, in the limited time I have left, can you update the committee on the biometric requirements for the workers who lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19? Some Service Canada centres are closed, so has your department done anything to ease the potential bottlenecks to ensure the biometrics process? Is there anything you can add to address the potential bottlenecks?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

We have looked at ways to create that flexibility, including with biometrics, having regard for the fact that our visa application centres are either closed or at reduced capacity.

I want to emphasize that decisions to close visa application centres are made by foreign governments. However, we remain engaged with our service personnel abroad and remain engaged with source countries to ensure that they are recognizing the importance of the essential sector for our visa application centres. That's especially true in Mexico.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Minister.

Thank you, Mr. MacGregor.

We will now begin the second round of questions.

Mr. Lehoux, go ahead for five minutes.

We cannot hear Mr. Lehoux. So we will give the floor to Ms. Bessette and will then come back to Mr. Lehoux.

[Lyne Bessette, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon, Minister. Thank you for joining us this afternoon.

We know how important temporary foreign workers are for our producers. You just talked about the number of temporary foreign workers in the country, but I would like to hear your comments on the challenges related to those temporary foreign workers. What difficulties do those people have to overcome?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Thank you for your question, Ms. Bessette.

A number of challenges exist. First, as I was saying, conditions are imposed outside Canada, in other countries, which are restricting the opening of offices. We are continuing to hire, in collaboration with our partner, outside Canada to expand and improve the process followed in other countries. In Canada, we have created a team that is in charge of expediting request approvals. Currently, requests are being approved in only 10 days or less. We have made a lot of progress, and we will continue to look for solutions to support temporary foreign workers.

[Lyne Bessette, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Thank you very much.

As we know, every province throughout the country has a different landscape in which the COVID pandemic is having an impact in a unique fashion.

Can you speak to what actions have been taken among the provinces and territories through your department to align our country's response to COVID-19 for temporary foreign workers?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Thank you for your question.

I am working closely with my counterparts from across Canada, including Mr. Jolin-Barrette, in Quebec. We are collaborating on a number of aspects in various areas, in particular on the temporary worker program. When we collaborate with other countries, we need to have an approach that aligns with provincial approaches. So a lot of cooperation is going into accommodating those workers, and that work will continue.

[Lyne Bessette, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Thank you very much.

How is the current infrastructure holding up for those temporary foreign workers?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

If by “infrastructure” you mean the supports in place, they are holding up quite well, and that is because we have provided financial support to farmers. We have provided supports for temporary workers around the conditions of their work to ensure there is a high standard of health and safety.

As I said, we want to ensure that they are getting into Canada as quickly as possible, but without in any way compromising our primary objective to stop the spread of COVID-19 as much as possible. We've put into place a whole suite of measures to ensure the temporary workers and the farms on which they are working are very supported.

[Lyne Bessette, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Thank you.

I think I have a little bit more time.

The agri-food pilot program helps integrate a specific industry approach to address the labour shortage, but as far as I have understood, there is also an immigration assistance component.

What is the ultimate objective of that program and what gap is it filling?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

The objective of the agri-food pilot program is to open up a pathway to permanent residence for temporary foreign workers. Its goal is to make us think about the contribution of that category of workers and about their connection to Canada. I am optimistic about the outcome of that pilot program.

[Lyne Bessette, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Lyne.

I believe Mr. Lehoux is still having technical problems.

We will go to Mr. Barlow, and I would ask if you could submit somebody else from your party, Mr. Barlow, in case Mr. Lehoux can't join.

Go ahead, Mr. Barlow, for five minutes.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I had Richard's questions here just in case this happened, so I will ask Richard's questions for him, and then, hopefully, if he's able to jump in, he will.

Minister, I will be giving these questions from Mr. Lehoux's perspective, minus the French.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Okay. He owes you one.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

That's right.

Mr. Lehoux sent a letter to your office in February, before the pandemic even began, with some questions regarding temporary foreign workers. He never received a response or even an acknowledgement of that letter, which is concerning for a new member of Parliament. He offered some recommendations on the temporary foreign worker program.

Did you receive that letter?