Human Resources Committee on May 30th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Good afternoon everybody.

We are back here again after a break week. We're going to get very quickly into the temporary foreign worker program study again. Before that, though, there are just a few quick points I want to make.

I want to confirm with members that if they want to submit recommendations for the report on the TFW study or ask if the analysts should draft them, I think we had agreed that we were going to be sending them recommendations. If members would like to submit their own recommendations, the committee should agree on a deadline, and the deadline that has been recommended is June 3. Is there any discussion needed on that?

The analysts would like to propose that the first draft of the report of the TFW study be distributed to members on Friday, June 10, instead of June 8 as we had originally planned. This has to do with giving proper consideration to translation. Translation has pushed back and asked for a little bit more time. The review in committee would start as scheduled on Monday, June 13. Are there any questions or concerns about the extension for translation?

Mr. Zimmer.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

I think that to do the entire report within the next week is going to be a challenge at best. I hope the quality isn't sacrificed for expediency.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

I agree and I have spoken with the analysts on this, and they're well on their way. The extension is more for the translators so that we get it properly translated. Is there anything else?

Just as a reminder, we are asking the departments back in our third panel, but we will have to cut that a little bit short. We have to be in the House when, at 6:30?

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

At 6:30.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

We will get the votes at 6:30 and so we would leave here at, say, 10 minutes after six. Is that reasonable?

Mr. Warawa.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

So are we doing three rounds again?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Yes. We had to cut, if you will recall, the department officials in the first session, and we had asked that they come back to do our due diligence with them. That's what we have in the third round.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Mr. Chair, if your proposal is that we continue after the bells start ringing, what is....

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

The bells will start ringing at 6:15 and we'd actually leave five minutes before that. That is what I am proposing.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Okay. Fine.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you.

Without further ado, I would like to introduce our first panel. As individuals we have Jamie Liew, immigration lawyer and law professor, faculty of law, common law section, University of Ottawa. Welcome.

We also have—and I'm probably going to get this wrong—Pinky Paglingayen. Is that pronunciation even close?

[Pinky Paglingayen, As an Individual]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you for lying a little bit there. She is joining us by video conference from Toronto, Ontario.

We also have from National Cattle Feeders' Association, Casey Vander Ploeg, manager of policy and research. Welcome, sir.

From the Hotel Association of Canada, we have Anthony P. Pollard, president. Welcome, sir.

Seeing as we have three different groups here today, we are going to limit the opening statements to seven minutes, and then we'll have questions after that.

Either Jamie or Pinky, whoever is planning to speak, you have seven minutes. Thank you.

[Jamie Liew, Immigration Lawyer and Law Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, University of Ottawa, As an Individual]

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and honourable members. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. My name is Jamie Liew. I'm an immigration and refugee lawyer and a professor of law at the University of Ottawa. My presentation to you today will be shared with Pinky Paglingayen, a migrant worker, who can tell you about her experience directly.

I appreciate that this review is complex, and understanding this, I have included in my written submissions a copy of the Canadian Council for Refugees' written submissions. I want to endorse this submission, and in my presentation to you today, you will see that I share their concerns.

In my written submissions I offer six recommendations, but given our short time today, I will speak to only my four long-term recommendations. Just for your reference, my short-term recommendations include doing away with tied work permits and offering open work permits and giving migrant workers access to settlement services.

Looking at the visionary goals of how to reform this program, I would first recommend making the program a pathway to permanent residence. Many foreign workers do some of the most difficult work in our society, which allows our communities to function, including picking the fruit we eat, cleaning our toilets, and caring for our children, elderly, and dying. These tasks will always need to be done.

Addressing long-term labour needs via short-term disposable labour creates a two-tiered society with a growing population of workers who have access to fewer rights than others and who are not permitted to integrate and further contribute to Canadian society. As this committee heard two weeks ago, this program already provides an important source of permanent residence for Canadians.

My second recommendation is to eliminate the four-in, four-out rule. Limiting migrant workers in Canada to working for four years and prohibiting these people from working in Canada for four years afterwards reinforces the temporary nature of the program. However, much of the labour demand is not temporary and rips from our society contributing members who have been trained and integrated into communities.

I have one client who gave four years of her life to care for brain-injured and dying Canadians as a personal support worker. She eventually obtained her licence to work as a registered nurse, and she is now facing the prospect of leaving the life she built here in Canada despite the contributions she has made. She is trained, established, and yet disposable.

My third recommendation is to allow family reunification.

Temporary foreign workers are separated from their families for four years or more, and while many Canadians take for granted that we can go home from a day's work to our children, migrant workers suffer from stress, anxiety, and depression as a result of family separation. Preventing spouses and children from joining these workers causes significant hardship, particularly to women who have to negotiate and manage child care arrangements from long distances. They have to watch their children grow up from a distance.

Finally, I want to recommend that work permits be offered to sex workers. I want to highlight that some migrant workers in Canada do not have access to work permits and that this should be reconsidered. In particular the committee should consider how the lack of status can affect trafficked persons and particularly how exotic dancers or sex workers can be driven underground, increasing risks of abuse and exploitation.

Increased police raids and surveillance of strip clubs, massage parlours, and escort agencies have led migrant workers to go further underground or risk deportation. Afraid of deportation, these women are less likely to come forward to police when they are victims of violence and exploitation. While there may be efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking and criminal offences tied to sex work, these actions will not increase the safety of migrant sex workers in their working environment. Recognizing these women as foreign workers would help them obtain the protection they need.

I want to welcome Pinky Paglingayen to share her thoughts. Before I do, I just want to highlight the fact that I wanted to share my time with a migrant worker today and I canvassed many people, including some of my clients, many of whom were too afraid to come forward even with the promise of anonymity. So I want to thank Pinky for being courageous enough to come before this committee today to share her experience.

[Pinky Paglingayen]

Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for having me.

My name is Pinky Paglingayen. I came here in 2004 from the Philippines under the live-in caregiver program. I was employed by a family of four in Thornhill, Ontario. This family demanded that I pay $3,000 in exchange for their helping me to come here. I felt as if I had no choice. Several days later they released me from my employment. That's when I felt so cheated, abandoned, and alone.

In 2006, I moved to Oakville to work for another family, but was dismissed when my employer found out in 2007 that I was pregnant. My employer did not give me my last paycheque and vacation pay. As a result my OHIP was cut off because I was on an open permit and not yet a permanent resident. I felt as if my rights as a worker were not respected simply because my employer did not like the fact that I was pregnant. I had no choice but to leave because I did not want anything to jeopardize my ability to stay in Canada, and also to obtain my permanent resident status here.

After almost 10 years I still see the same issues that I faced happening to many caregivers and temporary foreign workers. That is why, since gaining my permanent residency here, I've made it my job and life mission to support other caregivers and temporary foreign workers. Over the years I've met with hundreds of such migrant workers across the country. Their stories are similar to mine, sometimes better, sometimes much worse. The same exploitation by recruiters, asking for more fees, the same mistreatment and abuse by employers. All the migrant workers I know want one thing, and that is basic human dignity. They want the same rights as everyone else. They want to be with their loved ones. You have the ability right now to change the laws that impact migrant workers, and that means full permanent residency rights and expedited family reunification for workers in the country. The ability to apply for permanent residency should be extended to other members of the temporary foreign worker program. Future migrant workers should come with full permanent residency, family reunification, and real labour rights. That's all we want to see happening in the future.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much for those very passionate opening remarks. I'm sure we'll be asking further questions about your experience.

Moving on to our next speaker, Mr. Vander Ploeg, from the National Cattle Feeders' Association, you have seven minutes, please.

[Casey Vander Ploeg, Manager, Policy and Resarch, National Cattle Feeders' Association]

Good afternoon.

I'm Casey Vander Ploeg and I serve as the manager of policy and research with the National Cattle Feeders' Association. NCFA represents cattle feeding operations across Canada.

Today's cattle feeding operations are highly sophisticated endeavours and employ a range of proven production technologies that result in some of the most affordable, nutritious, and safest beef in the world. I thank the committee for providing this opportunity to share our perspectives on labour and the temporary foreign worker program.

Without any reservation whatsoever, I contend that the single largest issue facing Canadian agriculture today is a shortage of labour that is chronic, pervasive, and severe. This is challenging our competitiveness today and threatening our prospects for growth and export opportunities tomorrow.

Agriculture has the highest job vacancy rate of any industry in Canada at seven per cent. This is no small deal.

Agriculture and agrifood generates eight per cent of national GDP and the beef industry is an anchor for Canadian agriculture, our most valuable agricultural product. Canada is home to 10 million beef cattle and we process about three million head annually, generating $10.5 billion in farm cash receipts.

Just to give you a sense of the scale, consider the beef plant in High River, Alberta. That facility can process up to 4,000 head a day, which translates into two million pounds of boxed beef shipped daily.

Yes, agriculture is an important player in our economy, and it could be even more so, but it simply cannot until our labour challenges are addressed.

The first challenge is the labour shortage at the feedlot itself.

To be competitive, cattle feeders need a reliable, skilled, and competent workforce. Employment at a feedlot is not seasonal. These cattle represent an investment of tens of millions of dollars and require care 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Labour shortages are not an option, because they impact the health and welfare of animals.

Yet it's very difficult to find, attract, and retain sufficient domestic workers. The reasons are many. We're not graduating enough people with the right skills. These jobs are located in rural Canada, away from the pool of labour in urban areas. The work is dusty, it's dirty, and difficult. It's no surprise that in Alberta mounting layoffs in oil and gas have not translated into increased applications at feedlots.

Hiring Canadians has always been and always will be our first priority. But the reality is that despite extensive efforts, the feedlot sector is not able to secure enough Canadian workers. Increasingly, it has been forced to rely on the temporary foreign worker program to augment the Canadian workforce.

Bringing in these workers is expensive and time-consuming. Yet they are paid the same as Canadians and are provided with housing, transportation, and benefits as well. The red tape and lack of timeliness associated with the process is burdensome, and recent changes to the program have made access more difficult.

As an industry we're doing our part. The Alberta Cattle Feeders have invested hundreds of thousands in a new recruitment campaign. Another example is the work of the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council, whom you will hear from later. Over five dozen agriculture and agrifood organizations support the council and its agriculture and agrifood workforce action plan.

The second challenge concerns labour shortages in meat processing facilities.

Beef production is a complex value chain and all components of that chain have to operate at full capacity to be competitive. Cattle feeders are impacted by labour shortages in our beef processing plants. Later you will hear from processors, and we unequivocally support the solutions they will present to this committee as well.

Working in a meat plant is work that most Canadians do not want and will not do. Immigrants and temporary foreign workers are essential for the packing industry. Each day, Canada's meat processing establishments operate with hundreds of empty work stations, and they are presently seeking over 1,000 workers. That labour shortage is making Canadian plants uncompetitive. It prevents us from harnessing new export opportunities such as CETA and TPP.

We view the challenges in the processing sector as our very own challenge because uncompetitive plants are plants that run the risk of closure, and for beef that would be devastating and, likely, unrecoverable.

In terms of solutions, I would urge the committee to consider the following: We need more and better engagement with governments so our unique needs are recognized and efficient programs are designed. We encourage the committee to closely examine the recommendations found in Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's workforce action plan. We encourage government to continue streamlining the administration and timelines of the program. We need to ensure that the program works for the meat processing sector and that the entire beef production chain is competitive and sustainable, and that we do not drive processing out of Canada. We need to consider giving priority to low-skilled immigrants to more accurately reflect the economic and labour needs of an evolving Canada. We need to ensure that successful foreign workers are provided with a streamlined pathway to permanent residency, whether through the federal express entry or some other program. Also, we could consider creating a single office or centre of specialization for the agriculture stream to ensure that there are knowledgeable staff and timely labour market impact assessments and work permit processing.

In short, we believe that the federal government must show leadership in helping craft solutions to our labour shortages. Key here is fixing access to temporary foreign workers and the temporary foreign worker program and, if necessary, even considering the creation of a new, dedicated agriculture and agrifood workforce program.

Finally, we should all realize that exceptions were made for the seafood industry on Canada's east coast. Agriculture and agrifood have a similar challenge, if not a larger one, and attention must be paid to our needs as well.

I thank you for your time and giving consideration to our suggestions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much, sir.

Now I would like to hear from the president of the Hotel Association of Canada, Mr. Pollard. You have seven minutes.

[Anthony Pollard, President, Hotel Association of Canada]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity to be back here again with you a couple of weeks after my last time here, but I won't say any more about that.

The Hotel Association of Canada represents all of the lodging industry across Canada. There are about 8,500 hotels. We employ about 288,000 people. In terms of revenues, last year, we did about $17.5 billion.

I always like to point out, when I come before a committee like this, the tax revenues that are generated by our industry. They total about $7.6 billion right across the board, and about $3.3 billion of that goes to the feds. So I like to say we're the good news industry. We actually help pay a lot of bills and we don't ask for a lot in return.

However—and there's always a little bit of a “however” in there—the lodging industry across Canada still suffers from a critical shortage of workers in particular areas, more often in the remote areas. Think of a resort where you may have three or four thousand bedrooms and a very, very small community surrounding it. I have my colleague Darren Reader with me here today from Banff and Lake Louise, and we can point out, for example, that in a place like the Fairmont Banff, we employ about 400 temporary foreign workers every year simply because there are not the people there to do the work.

We continue to go out and try to engage as many Canadians as we possibly can, and we also try to hire indigenous people. We still have severe shortages.

When the reforms took place in 2014, limiting it to 10% of a company's workforce and looking at what the unemployment rate is and so forth, it just didn't work. Most communities have an unemployment rate that is above 6% and hotels couldn't qualify. We're saying we need to take into account the seasonal-demand nature of our work. As a result of this and as a result of the changes that we saw the minister implement in March of this year, which we commended the government and the minister for making and we said were a really good thing to be doing, at the end of the day, we still have seasonal problems right across the board. That's why we need to be able to have a seasonal lodging worker program.

I mentioned the measures the government took in March outside the 10% cap limit and so forth, and again as I said, we applauded Minister Mihychuk for that. We are pleased that the government is recognizing the seasonality, and we do want to move forward with the development of a program for us.

In closing, we need more than stop-gap measures. We need a long-term permanent solution to what we have right now.

I know that Fort Mac is still at the top of our agenda as it is in a lot of places. Let me just tell you right now that we lost two of our hotels up there. There is an immediate demand for at least 125 workers to go up there and start reopening. When I say immediate, I mean immediate, right now. We don't have them, and we can't get them.

And finally, Mr. Chairman, at any given time, you probably wonder how many people under the old program are actually working in hotels. The number is about 10,000. About 5,000 were in Alberta. Obviously that has changed there, but there are different factors going on. The other 5,000 out of the roughly 290,000 that we have were spread across the country .

I heard my friend talking about the cattle industry, and he said it goes 365 days a year. Well, you know what ? In the hotel business, we don't close our doors unless we're forced to. So what we're looking for from you people is your help so we can keep our doors open.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Now we'll go to questions.

The first round of six minutes goes to Mr. Zimmer.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

I'll start with the cattle feeders.

Casey, it's good to have you back. I think we've gotten to know each other a little bit over the years as a result of my being on the agriculture committee and seeing the battle cattle feeders have with getting product out to Canadians and getting good Canadian beef out to consumers who want to consume it.

I'm concerned, as you are, with the lack of positions in this industry. As you said, from the industry itself, there are 10 million beef cattle and $10.5 billion in receipts. Although we certainly want to hire Canadian workers, and that's going to be one of my questions, I guess I'm concerned by the lack of Canadians stepping up to do these kinds of jobs which the industry can move elsewhere. I think most of us in the room know that the beef industry is not protected by supply management. It can go different places, and Canadians will be net importers of beef products as opposed to exporters, which we want to be. What is the typical shortage of workers where it is now? Also, what is the process for attempting to hire Canadian workers? We'll start with the first question and move onto number two.

Go ahead, Casey.

[Casey Vander Ploeg]

It really runs the gamut. If you have a 25,000-head feeding operation, you're looking at an employed force of anywhere between 60 and 70 people. The job descriptions are varied. A pen rider sounds like a fairly simple job but this individual will be on a horse going through the pens of cattle. His or her job is to identify and diagnose sick animals. When they find one, the animal is pulled, brought to the hospital—a building at the feed yard—and then treated. It's a very important job, one that if it isn't conducted well, results in the loss of thousands of dollars.

There's the experience of a feedlot in Manitoba, which is looking to hire a veterinary technician. This is not a full veterinarian. They've looked across the country and cannot find a large animal vet tech. So they're looking to bring in a foreign worker to fill that job.

The needs are varied. There has been a bright light for cattle feeders. When the reforms were announced by the previous government, feedlots were designated as primary agriculture. That meant that some of the changes did not apply to our sector and that was beneficial.

I think the biggest concern of the cattle feeding sector right now is what's happening in our processing plants. If those plants are not efficient and competitive, they run the risk of closing. If that were to happen—

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

I just have a few minutes. What could happen to the beef industry in Canada if the temporary foreign worker program isn't fixed in a manner that supplies you with the workers you need?

[Casey Vander Ploeg]

If it resulted in the closure of a beef plant it would be devastating. That is a potential outcome. If it's not being resolved at the feedlot level, you will see production simply decline because there are not enough workers to carry on production.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Mr. Pollard, part of the reasons why we tried to fix the temporary foreign worker program was that we heard about different abuses in the system. The question I am asked as a parliamentarian is why are Canadians not being asked to fill these jobs first? I know the other side well enough to know that the LMIAs, the requests for workers, often go unanswered. Could you explain, on behalf of the hotel industry, how many spots go unanswered that you're looking to fill with TFWs?