Canadian Heritage Committee on Dec. 11th, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

I call the meeting to order.

Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

Pursuant to our study on the Canadian entertainment software industry, we're pleased to have today the Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism.

Welcome, Minister.

Appearing with him from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration we have David Manicom, director general, immigration branch, and Sharon Chomyn, director general, international region. From the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development we have Steven West, director, temporary foreign worker program.

These witnesses and the minister are scheduled to be here until 4:30, and then we'll go to the final hour of our meeting.

With that, Minister, welcome. I understand you have some opening remarks, so the floor is yours.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Citizenship]

Thanks very much, Chairman.

First, let me sincerely apologize to you and members for my absence last Thursday. I believe there was a miscommunication between my office, my department, and your committee. I'm not quite sure where that happened, but I thought I was supposed to be here at 4:30 and it turns out when you were expecting me at 3:30. I was making a presentation at a cabinet committee. It was just a communication error. Please forgive me for my absence.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to discuss one aspect of the study that you have been having on the Canadian entertainment software industry, and particularly the priority placed on certain companies in the industry to obtain rapid access to highly specialized foreign nationals to help them in this large and dynamic industry. Our government recognizes that we need immigrants to fill labour market shortages in many sectors and regions. That's why we've made a number of improvements to our economic immigration program in order to ensure that it can effectively respond to Canada's changing economic needs.

In response to labour shortages that exist right across the country, we've made changes to the temporary foreign worker program so that it better meets labour market demands.

I will go into more details about some of the improvements we've made to the program. Before I do that, I would just like to address the issue of processing times for work permit applications issued to those in the video game industry.

During the course of this study, industry representatives have suggested that the process to obtain a work permit is far too cumbersome and that it takes too long for employers to get the workers they need.

Let me just add, Chairman, parenthetically, we get a lot of criticism from some quarters for allowing any temporary foreign workers into the country and from others suggesting that the process is far too lax. On the other hand, we hear from employers—not just in this industry, but right across the economic spectrum—that the rules for the temporary foreign worker program are too rigid. We're always trying to find the appropriate balance that ensures that the program operates on the basis of Canadians first but does not deny access to foreign nationals to do critical work when qualified Canadians are not available. We recognize that the application process can seem complicated to some employers. This is something we're trying to improve.

As members of the committee are aware, employers must first apply for an authorization to hire a temporary foreign worker with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. In other words, employers must first apply for a labour market opinion, an LMO, before they can make a work permit application with Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

This is to ensure that qualified Canadians have first crack at any available jobs.

For all applications made outside of Canada, our service standard is to finalize 80% of all work permit applications within two months or less. In fact, we're currently surpassing our overseas service standard and processing 80% of work permit applications in less than 46 days. The location at which an application is made—either at a visa office, a point of entry, or from within Canada—can affect the processing time.

Under some circumstances, work permit applications can be made at the point of entry and are issued almost immediately after applicants present themselves to a border officer. For example, foreign nationals coming from visa-exempt countries, say the United States or France, typically do not require a work permit from abroad when they're coming into Canada, and indeed if the job that they are coming to fill is labour market opinion exempt, essentially they can just fly into the airport, go to CBSA immigration secondary, and have the work permit in principle approved at that point, so in certain circumstances this can be a very streamlined process.

For applications made at our visa offices abroad, the length of time it takes to finalize an application varies, as visa offices in different regions and countries face different processing challenges. Some receive many more applications than others and have far fewer resources to process applications. Also, an individual applicant's specific circumstances may impact the processing time.

I want to assure members of this committee that I am working with my colleague, the Hon. Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, to make the system more efficient. Last fall, we held consultations with employers and stakeholders on how we could improve the TFWP in order to better meet the needs of employers.

I'm pleased to report that we've since made a number of improvements to the program that will address employers' concerns, including some of those raised during the course of this study.

In particular, the government has made significant changes to accelerate the LMO process. This past April, we launched a new, streamlined approach that will speed up the process for hiring temporary foreign workers to fill short-term skilled labour needs.

While employers will continue to demonstrate that they have to have made all reasonable efforts to recruit from among Canadians, returning employers seeking to hire high-skilled workers and those who have previously hired temporary workers will have their applications fast-tracked. Trusted employers with a strong track record will receive an accelerated labour market opinion, an A-LMO, within 10 business days, to hire high-skilled temporary foreign workers.

This new A-LMO has dramatically improved our service to employers in need of workers; it's also greatly reduced the paperwork burden on employers, and they are able to hire skilled temporary foreign workers much more quickly.

In order to ensure this program can better respond to an employer's specific labour needs, I've also worked with provincial counterparts to put in place temporary foreign workers annexes in our federal-provincial immigration agreements. Of course, they're already an element of the Canada-Quebec immigration accord as well. For example, under Alberta's temporary worker annex, the province has the authority to identify workers or groups of workers who may be exempted from the LMO requirement.

I should also mention that our TFW program may serve as a channel to other immigration options, such as the Canadian Experience Class. In fact, just today I announced that as of January 2, high-skilled temporary foreign workers who have completed 12 months of work in Canada will be able to qualify for permanent residency through the Canadian Experience Class, as opposed to having to complete 24 months, which was the case heretofore.

As a result of this change and our recruiting efforts, next year we plan to accept a record number of permanent residents through the Experience Class. In fact, we plan to accept 10,000 next year.

In order to get the high-skilled workers they need, employers in the video game industry might consider recruiting international graduates who are already in Canada. They could then start their career in Canada under a post-graduation work permit program, then apply to stay here under the CEC.

Employers can also make a permanent job offer to a temporary foreign worker who is either already in Canada or abroad, through what is known as an arranged employment offer under the federal skilled worker program. This ensures they receive faster processing than other federal skilled workers.

In addition to federal programs, the Quebec immigration program and the other nine provinces' nominee programs also provide these pathways to permanent residency for people who might be in need in this industry.

In closing, Mr. Chairman, my message is that we're trying to be responsive to the needs of employers like this in cases where there are specialized skills that are just not available in the Canadian labour market, at the same time always trying to ensure that Canadians get the first crack at these jobs and encouraging employers and foreign nationals to consider options for permanent residency.

We don't want to just bring in these bright young people to produce these entertainment products; we'd also like some of them to stay and make Canada their new home on a permanent basis.

Thank you very much. I look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Minister Kenney.

Now we'll move to our time for questions and answers.

First up is Mr. Gill.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I also want to thank the minister for taking the time to be here with us today, and I thank the officials as well.

Minister, we've heard that while the industry experiences some difficulties in accessing foreign workers, accelerated labour market opinion surveys have been helpful to the industry. Can you comment on why accelerated LMOs are so important to hiring temporary foreign workers?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Starting a couple of years ago, we observed that a large number of employers had used the temporary foreign worker program without any compliance problems. They were very credible businesses, and when applying for LMOs were getting approved in 95% or 100% of cases. We saw a huge volume of applications coming in that were getting approved for these credible and reliable employers, and we thought it would make more sense from an administrative point of view to streamline the process for those trusted employers. That's why in a sense we've created a separate queue for trusted employers. They can make these applications under the accelerated labour market opinion, and in most cases they're getting an answer in seven days or less.

I should say our officials at HRSDC can operate on the basis that it's likely those applications are sound because of the employer's past track record. In a sense, it's a form of risk triaging: we take the low-risk applications from high-quality employers, we fast-track those ones, and then we can spend more time and care analyzing the LMO applications from employers without a positive track record or with no track record at all. It's something anyone would do in a business. We take a qualitative analysis of workflow and push through more quickly those that are getting almost 100% approval. Although there is a quality assurance there, Service Canada will randomly pull out some of the A-LMO applications and do a rigorous analysis just to be sure they meet the criteria of the program and that Canadians are being offered jobs first.

The bottom line is that this means a lot faster service, it saves us administrative resources, and it allows us to focus on those applications that are probably more problematic.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

That's perfect.

Can you also explain to the committee how removing the federal skilled worker backlog may help companies in the entertainment software industry to access more foreign skilled workers in 2013 and beyond?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

I think one of the things you've heard from the industry here is the incredible speed at which businesses like that work. When businesses in the IT sector need people with specialized coding skills, they need them now, they don't need them two years from now or seven years from now.

This corresponds to what I've been saying about our fundamental reforms to Canada's immigration system: we need to move from a slow and rigid system in which people were typically waiting for seven or eight years on their applications for permanent residency as economic immigrants to a system that is fast, flexible, and labour market responsive. As much as possible, we want to be able to bring qualified economic immigrants into Canada within a matter of months rather than several years, which was the case in the past. We're now on the cusp of eliminating the huge old backlog in the skilled worker program. A year from how we will have what's called a “working inventory”, and thereafter we will be able to bring in people very quickly. That's already the case for people with pre-arranged employment.

This means we want to encourage employers, as in this industry, not just to look to temporary work permits as a solution to their labour market need, but to think long term a little about perhaps trying to attract those people to stay through permanent residency. Our new and faster immigration system makes that a real possibility, when it wasn't in the past.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Thank you for that.

Since the entertainment software industry has such a need for temporary foreign workers, I would like to give you the opportunity to provide the committee with more information regarding the Come to Canada Wizard.

Is this tool being used by Canadian industries, and if so, is its use on the increase?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

We've been doing a huge amount of work at Citizenship and Immigration Canada to massively improve our online services. As usual, government is behind the curve with respect to the private sector on this, but we are catching up to a point where in the future all applications for permanent residency and most applications for temporary residency visas will be made online. Indeed, with our new global IT system in my ministry, they can be processed anywhere at points of service around the world. This will massively improve our efficiency and the speed with which we assess and process visa applications.

The Come to Canada wizard is one element of our new online service through CIC. It's part of our redesigned website as well. It allows either employers or potential visa applicants to go online to fill out a series of questions about where they are, what kind of visa they want, how long they want to stay in Canada, their purpose for visiting, and whether they want to come permanently or temporarily. It directs them to the appropriate programs or the appropriate application forms online. It's hopefully a user-friendly door into the new world of online services through Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and it's been massively popular. If I'm not mistaken, we've had hundreds of thousands of hits and visits to the Come to Canada wizard.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

How much time do we have, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

You have 30 seconds, Mr. Gill.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

I think there is another quick question that I can throw in there.

Recognizing that accessing temporary foreign workers can be challenging within some industries, could you tell the committee how your department is planning to retain highly skilled foreign workers who are already living in Canada?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

In 2009, we created the important new immigration program called the Canadian Experience Class, which invites foreign students who have completed a two-year degree or diploma and one year of work in Canada, or highly skilled temporary foreign workers who have done 24 months of work in Canada, to apply for and obtain permanent residency from within Canada.

In the past, we used to tell them to leave the country to make an application for the skilled worker points program and to get in the back of an eight-year-long line. Now we say, “Great. You've done your degree, your diploma, and a year of work in Canada as a student. Please stay.”

As well, I just announced today that as of January 2, we're lowering the threshold of work period required for high-skilled temporary workers to obtain PR through the Canadian Experience Class from 24 months to 12 months. If one of these companies has hired a brilliant video game producer who has come in from France and has been working in Montreal for 12 months at one of these companies.... That's not a good example, because it's in Quebec, which could of course sponsor them, but if they came to Toronto and did this, they could apply for and obtain, in principle, permanent residency through the CEC.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Gill.

Mr. Nantel is next.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon, Mr. Kenney, Ms. Chomyn, Mr. Manicom and Mr. West. Thank you for meeting with us this afternoon.

It's important that everyone here understand that the video game industry is one that few people know well and that most of the members from my generation who are 40 or older, don't know much about these products. So it is understandable that your department is facing new challenges.

But we found it quite appropriate to have you come meet with us today, specifically because the goal of our study is to support an industry that is creating jobs. And these are well-paying jobs, as well. Our first goal remains creating a pool of talent here in Canada that will be able to meet the needs of this industry. There are immigration issues, of course, given that new star players, if I may say so, that specialize in a particular field are coming here. Ultimately, our goal remains training the workforce here, while showing some flexibility at times.

What concerns me is that Service Canada has experienced a lot of cuts that seem to be having an impact on the speed with which we can analyze the effect on the labour market. Don't you think that the timing is bad, that it's like making cuts to firefighters when a fire breaks out? We need very specific workers, particularly right now. You're talking about changes, but they are ones that will happen eventually.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Mr. Chair, if I may, Mr. West mentioned the processing times for applications for…

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

You're talking about labour market opinion applications.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

In general, I think that by creating the new accelerated LMO, we have greatly reduced the processing times. We have also found a solution so that the video game industry is exempt from the obligation of obtaining a labour market opinion.

Under the Canada-Quebec Accord on Immigration, Quebec has the authority to eliminate the requirement to advertise to obtain LMOs. It has this power. Other provinces have the same authority. For example, the Government of Alberta wrote to me recently to obtain an exemption for certain occupations, such as welders, so that they can come to Canada and work. It's to ensure that we can avoid this process.

Mr. West, do you have anything to add on processing times?

[Steven West, Director, Temporary Foreign Worker Program, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development]

I think the minister provided a good question, but I can add to it. The accelerated labour market opinion, meaning the accelerated process we put in place in April, is very efficient. We can provide employers with LMOs very quickly, especially in this industry where workers are specialized.

The expected standard for this process was to deliver an LMO in 10 days. However, our experience to date has been that we can deliver an LMO in two to three days. That's very quick…

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

I'm sorry for interrupting you, Mr. West, but honestly, if we look at the document prepared by the Library of Parliament on the situation, only one witness out of six indicates that this is going well. The four others, which come from people who are not just in Montreal, but also in Toronto, say the opposite. They say it takes an extremely long time. The solution is not to exempt someone from the process. The process is necessary to maintain and protect jobs in Canada. The process must simply be as efficient as possible.

That's why I would like to put the question directly to Mr. Kenney. Don't you think that we have a problem with the application? If you have a good tool, because it's possible that you have a good tool, is it perhaps not applicable because you have made too many cuts at Service Canada?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

No, this has nothing to do with the budget cuts. As Mr. West said, the accelerated process takes two to three days. I've heard this from a lot of employers. We have also worked with the Quebec ministry of immigration and cultural communities, for example, to eliminate the obligation of advertising for several professions in this area.

I don't understand what the problem is if the accelerated process takes two or three days and if there are exemptions. Perhaps I can ask the officials with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada to contact studio producers to determine what the problem is, concretely. In general, I think we have resolved a lot of the problems in this regard.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

On page 2 of the document, you can read the fairly eloquent testimonies. If this is the case, we should agree to ask the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, Ms. Finley, to come and follow up on this.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

When did you start hearing these testimonies? Was it on October 7?

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

They were in October and November.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

I find them a little surprising. I would like to respond to their claims. We made sure that changes were made at the political level to respond to the needs of these industries. I'm a little mystified by this problem.