Good morning.
My name is Joany Boily Renaud, and I represent Les services de main-d'œuvre l'Appui, which works with immigrants.
Today I would like to talk to you about two issues that we experience with our clientele every day.
The first issue is the time it takes to process immigration files.
People waiting to be granted status live under considerable stress. I'm thinking, in particular, of parents of young children who don't know what their future holds. People who are waiting for permanent residence or who want to extend their work permit so they can remain in Canada unfortunately face very long delays in the processing of their files, which cause them considerable stress.
The other issue I want to discuss with you concerns the resources of community organizations that work with immigrants and, more specifically, with vulnerable workers.
In some instances, the closed work permits system requires temporary foreign workers to stay with an employer who forces them to live in a toxic environment. Fortunately, they can request an open work permit in those circumstances. However, the support these workers receive to complete the paperwork associated with the open work permit application is inadequate, even virtually nonexistent. In some instances, they have to wait two or three weeks to get that assistance. These workers are distressed, living in toxic and unhealthy environments, seeking assistance and forced to endure long delays in the processing of their files.
I sincerely ask you to take that into consideration.
Thank you.