Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My questions are for Ms. Verma and Ms. Devries.
As a liberal MP from New Brunswick, I have supported in my riding a project funded by the previous government and called Carrefour d'immigration rurale and whose objective was to facilitate the integration of immigrants in rural francophone parts of this country. I understand the same thing exist for the anglophone community. It is a matter of integration. First of all, we must get across the idea that we are all immigrants. Secondly, tolerance is somewhat more difficult to bring about in some regions.
You are saying that some people are not necessarily paid the same salary that is being paid to Canadian workers or to workers who live in Canada and have Canadian citizenship. Tell me if I am wrong, but I believe that if there are people who came here to work temporarily in the agriculture sector and who have no status, as you have mentioned, it is because there is a need, or else because workers presently living in Canada and having their citizenship papers do not want some of these jobs, or simply because there is a shortage of workers.
If the people who have the citizenship do not want these jobs or if some industries such as agriculture are really lacking in manpower to fill the existing jobs, we should make sure that these people are respected, because we need them. Let us work accordingly and let us give them the hand that they need: it is a matter of respect.
In answering the question put by my colleague Mr. Albrecht, you have read the section where it is mentioned that the employer can fire someone for “any other reason”. I know that migrant workers have no protection and will not complain for fear of losing their job and being sent home. In this situation, there is certainly a risk that these people do not receive fair wage for the work they are doing. Thus it would be essential to establish fair and equitable rules for these workers, given the fact that we need them in Canada. It is not as if they were not needed. If there are agreements between countries, it is certainly because we have a need for them.
So if I understood correctly, one of your objectives is to enable these people to obtain some documents to make sure they are respected in terms of their work.