Finance Committee on May 15th, 2014

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Yet the principle of Canadian law and human rights is that even the small incidents matter to us all, right?

Mr. Lavoie, in your presentation you said a word that caught my attention. You talked about uncertainty. With regard to the manufacturing sector in Canada, speak to us briefly about the uncertainty that's been created, because from my understanding, particularly with the larger companies and with resource-based companies, uncertainty is a word they don't want to use when they talk about government programs and services, because it has all these other effects.

[Martin Lavoie]

Absolutely. In our sector, most of the temporary foreign workers are in positions that are highly skilled. The preference of our members would be to hire Canadians, but sometimes that's just not possible. When we look at the data for southern Ontario, there have been just over 5,000 temporary positions in all sectors, 70% of them in advanced manufacturing, and 93% for under 12 months.

It creates uncertainty when people hear a lot of the things in the media. They think we're going to put everybody from McDonald's to advanced manufacturing companies in the same basket. Our president wrote letters to some members of Parliament, which I can send to you after, which call specifically for an advanced manufacturing skilled workers program. We're even ready to fix a certain above-average wage threshold for temporary employment, if necessary. We're not in the business of paying foreign employees less than what's in the Canadian market.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

You have only one minute.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Oh boy, one minute....

Sorry, Mr. McGuire, I'm going to go to Mr. Parent.

I want to understand this difference, because we've had veterans talk to us about the fairness and about the potential lawsuit in the waiting because of the clawback, which began in 2006. I think your suggestion was that the government is not legally obligated to go back even to 2012 for the recompensation of this clawback to injured veterans, yet the Manuge decision and the case referred to the changes in 2006.

Are you suggesting that what's being done is fair? Why are so many veterans contacting us to say the opposite?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Could you give just a brief response, please?

[Guy Parent]

Certainly.

What we're looking at is the fact that, yes, there was no obligation on the government to follow the court's judgment, because the court's judgment was in fact for a specific client base, the SISIP clients. So that had to do with the new Veterans Charter and insurance under SISIP.

The government of the time actually decided to look at the possibility. In fact it stopped all clawbacks from Veterans Affairs Canada payments, and at the same time it looked at retroactivity. You can see that the population affected here is more than just the new veterans clients. We're talking about the war veterans allowance clients as well. So we're talking about going back 40 or 50 years.

With regard to fairness, we think the government acted fairly. Going forward we would rather see money spent on people who would be destitute at 65 rather than on having people who are now well off get more retroactively.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you, Mr. Parent.

Mr. Saxton, go ahead, please.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

Thanks to our witnesses for being here today.

My first few questions will be for Professor Worswick.

Our government introduced changes to the temporary foreign worker program to ensure that Canadians have the first chance at available jobs, while cracking down on employers who abuse the program.

Would you agree with the general direction of these changes?

[Prof. Christopher Worswick]

Yes, I would. I think they're definitely a move in the right direction. I still have some concerns, as I have already indicated, that at the less-skilled end of the occupational or wage distribution, this program could have negative effects, but I think this is a move in the right direction.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

What would be your assessment as to the approximate percentage of employers who might be abusing the TFW program or have abused it in the past?

[Prof. Christopher Worswick]

I have no data to base that on. I would think it would be less than 5%.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

So it's very low.

[Prof. Christopher Worswick]

I would say it's low.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

So then you agree that suspending the TFW program would hurt small businesses across the country and also hurt the economy. Would you agree with that?

[Prof. Christopher Worswick]

I think if you suspended the entire program, it would hurt the economy. I don't know how large that effect would be, but it would hurt.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

So you believe the program is serving a worthwhile process and that, once reformed, it could be a good program.

[Prof. Christopher Worswick]

Yes, but just to be clear, I think the existence of positions for temporary foreign workers who come in with, say, some form of post-secondary education, including skilled trades-type qualifications, is beneficial. I think there may be negative consequences for the others. I think on net it's probably a positive.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Thank you.

The expression of interest system improves how the government manages applications, resulting in faster and more flexible processing while also increasing the labour market responsiveness of the immigration system. Moreover, the introduction of a two-step application process in certain economic classes will help prevent the accumulation of new backlogs by ensuring that only the best candidates, not simply the first ones, are able to apply to immigrate to Canada.

Do you concur with the assessment that this new EOI process will speed up application processing while ensuring that Canada can attract the best skilled immigrants?

[Prof. Christopher Worswick]

Yes, I think that's highly likely to happen. Especially given the fact that we've been so slow at the process in the past, it's likely that would speed it up. Whether it completely solves the problem or not is a different story. But I agree.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Okay.

So you think the expression of interest system is a good route to take?

[Prof. Christopher Worswick]

I think it's going to bring in skilled workers more quickly, and I think it's going to help us compete with the other countries that are taking similar approaches.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Okay, thank you.

My next questions are for Mr. Lavoie.

Mr. Lavoie, our government introduced the economic action plan to create jobs and grow the economy and to ensure prosperity. What measures in the economic action plan 2014 will help members of your organization compete in the global marketplace?

[Martin Lavoie]

There are many measures that I think are very beneficial. This government has been very aggressive on trade agreements. That's really good news. I think CETA was great news for us. I think the next big one is the Trans-Pacific Partnership. That's definitely a big one. I think last year's extension of the accelerated capital cost allowance was also a good measure to improve productivity. This measure is going to end by 2015, but we still think we need to keep an aggressive depreciation rate for machinery equipment to at least stay on par with U.S. depreciation.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Okay, thank you.

Now, since coming to office in 2006, our government has cut taxes in just about every way that Canadians pay them—in fact in 180 different ways—while reducing red tape for businesses as well through initiatives like the one-for-one rule.

Can you share your thoughts on the need to continue to cut red tape?