Government Operations Committee on May 11th, 2020

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Madam Minister, continuing on the subject of temporary foreign workers, what kind of results do you see? What are the gaps that need to be filled? What do Canadians need to know about the arrival and presence of temporary foreign workers? What could Canadians do to help fill the gap?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Those are really important questions. Thank you.

As I said in my opening remarks, there are jobs that are not being filled by temporary foreign workers as they have been filled historically, and —

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Madame Minister, I'm sorry to interrupt, but your audio level is quite low. I'm not sure if you're speaking away from your phone, but could you increase the volume somehow?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I sure can. I haven't moved, but I will try to use my coaching voice.

We've taken a number of steps to both help employers get the temporary foreign workers they need and to—

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Minister Qualtrough, again, the audio level is extremely low. I'm not sure if our technicians can help, but if you could try speaking directly into the microphone, that hopefully will solve the problem.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Chair, it works for me. The sound is fine for me.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I'll do my best. I feel like I'm almost eating the telephone. I'm trying very hard to speak right into it.

As I said, what we've done in Canada is a call to action. It's called “Step up to the plate—Help feed Canadians”. We're looking for Canadians as they did in France, to fill jobs that haven't been filled this year by temporary foreign workers with Canadians who are looking to work.

We're looking to get a domestic supply, but we're also trying to make it as easy as possible for a foreign supply of workers to also come in while maintaining the public health priority of ensuring that everybody is kept safe in the process.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much, Minister.

We'll now go to Madame Vignola.

You have five minutes, Madam.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Madam Minister, thank you for being here today.

How do the Canada Revenue Agency and Service Canada communicate with each other to ensure that benefits are not duplicated? I have received a couple of emails saying that people in my riding are receiving not only the CERB but employment insurance benefits as well. What are you doing to ensure that these errors do not happen again?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I thank you for your question.

We have been working very closely between Service Canada and CRA from the beginning. Despite our best efforts in messaging and explaining to Canadians that they didn't have to —

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Go ahead, Mrs. Block.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

I am sorry. I know that this is important testimony that we want to hear. We definitely value the time that we get with the ministers to answer the questions we have, but with the technical difficulties we are experiencing, I am having a very difficult time hearing the minister's response to Madame Vignola's question.

It's a little incomprehensible to me that one of our ministers is not set up very well to do this virtual committee meeting and that we're having these kinds of difficulties. It's not doing justice to this committee meeting today.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you, Mrs. Block.

Minister, I concur with Mrs. Block. As I've mentioned a couple of times in my interventions, I personally—I'm not sure about the rest of the committee—am having extreme difficulty with the audio levels. I'm not sure, Mr. Clerk or Madam Minister, if there's anything we can do, but I wish that we could somehow increase that audio level to allow our committee members to hear the minister's responses.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, I don't know if this is a point of order or a point of information. I've been switching on and off between English and Off on the interpretations. I find that when the minister is set to Off, it's fine, but then I have to switch interpretation back on for Madame Vignola.

I don't know if that is helpful, but I would also like to suggest to this committee that we move a motion at the appropriate time to invite the minister back when the proper equipment is in place to do a video conference, which by now should most certainly be commonplace.

[The Clerk]

If I may, Mr. Chair, following up on what Mr. Green said, I've noticed the same thing. When there is no interpretation, which is essentially the floor channel, I can hear the minister clearly. Unfortunately, for some reason on the English channel there seems to be a sound issue, so when, for example, somebody is listening to the interpretation, there is a bit of an issue there.

I've asked our technicians to see if there is anything they can do. I will let you know as soon as I get a response from them.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you.

Perhaps in the interim, then, Mrs. Block, you can go to the floor channel and we'll see if that helps.

Minister, could you please continue your testimony, and hopefully we'll have the audio levels corrected.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Thank you.

I apologize, Mr. Chair, I have what I thought was a very good set-up here. The reason I'm not participating by video conference is that my enlarging software on my computer, due to my visual impairment, is not compatible with having a whole bunch of things going on, so I requested to participate by phone.

I can certainly try by video conference in the future, but I can't guarantee I'll have.... It's just proven very difficult in the virtual Parliament and other settings for me to give a thoughtful answer without being able to see the screen to toggle buttons and toggle interpretation and what have you.

I apologize and I will—

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

No apologies are necessary, Minister. I can assure you that, from my side, and I see Mrs. Block nodding as well, when committee members are on the floor channel, your audio levels are quite good.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Thank you.

I must confess that I have lost track of the question. Could someone please repeat it for me?

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

That's okay.

Mr. Lukiwski, has the clock been stopped so that I can get my full five minutes?

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Minister Qualtrough, were you able to hear the question from Madame Vignola?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I apologize. I thought the question was whether she could have her five minutes back.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Yes. I have not docked her any time for that.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Okay, thank you.

Go ahead, Ms. Vignola.