Evidence of meeting #14 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was worker.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President, Hotel Association of Canada
I mentioned Fort Mac; that's an extreme situation. At any given time over the last several years, we employed about 10,000 people under the program, out of the 350,000 or so who were part of it.
Travel and tourism is growing at about 5%, a hell of a lot more than GDP or anything else. We are going to be experiencing a lot more shortages. Various studies say between 30,000 and 40,000 people in the next five years.
Conservative
President, Hotel Association of Canada
In our industry alone.
In Banff and Lake Louise a comprehensive study was done that shows that even with all the advertising, even with reaching out to everybody.... By the way, we prefer to hire Canadians. It's a lot cheaper than having to fly people in. At the end of the day, we identified another thousand people this year in Banff and Lake Louise.
Conservative
Liberal
Filomena Tassi Liberal Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON
Ms. Liew, you spoke about full residency rights. Could you provide recommendations and comments on pathways to permanent residency for low wage workers? What pathways are available and what's the appropriate timeline on these paths?
Immigration Lawyer and Law Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
There are a lot of different models that can be used. At the outset, I think the timelines right now leading to permanent residency are quite lengthy, and some of these people are waiting for years to even submit an application. As you know, sometimes submitting an application can take.... Right now I think the wait time for caregivers to hear back from Immigration about their applications for permanent residency is 40 months. This is completely unreasonable for someone who's given their life and contributed to our society in the manner they have. So at the outset, we need to shorten the times in which people can apply for permanent residency and broaden the category of persons who are eligible for permanent residency.
For example, caregivers are able to apply for permanent residency, but there's a whole slew of temporary workers who are not eligible for permanent residency at all, and the majority are low-skilled workers. Even though my colleagues here have pointed out a lot of different kinds of labour needs in Canada, I think this should be open to all kinds of workers. The fact that we have invested in these people already, that they're already in Canada, already trained, already educated about our culture, already integrated into our societies, and are paying taxes should be enough for Canadians to consider the fact that they are already citizens within our midst and just need to be made official.
My first recommendation would be to shorten the timelines in which they become eligible and, second, that the processing times be expedited for these people.
Tied in with that, I think these people should be treated as permanent residents from the get-go, so they should be able to bring their families along with them. They should be able to travel within and outside Canada and come back. I think the program itself should be modified so they're treated as permanent residents and have a graduated system for obtaining that.
Liberal
Filomena Tassi Liberal Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON
Do you have any direct advice on those timelines? You're saying, “Shorten them.”
Immigration Lawyer and Law Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
In my view, the timelines could be developed according to the kind of work they're doing. I understand that there are concerns with regard to persons staying within Canada, staying within the line of work that they will be doing, and things like that. I think the timing should be pretty tight with regard to that.
Liberal
Filomena Tassi Liberal Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON
Okay. Thank you.
My next question is for you, Professor Liew, as well as Ms. Paglingayen.
Before I ask the question, I would just like to congratulate you, Ms. Paglingayen, on your courage and determination for being here today to provide input. All of the witnesses' input is important and valuable, but you offer a unique perspective with your hands-on experience, not only in your own position but also of those you've counselled. I just want to give a special thanks to you, because I'm sure that you are dealing with fear and a lot of other emotions today. We will be taking your advice very seriously, and thank you for the unique perspective that you offer.
My question is for both of you, and you can determine who would like to answer it first. We talk about the ongoing abuse of temporary foreign workers. What mechanisms and resources are currently at the disposal of temporary foreign workers who suffer these abuses? What recommendations would you make to improve the situation?
Immigration Lawyer and Law Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Would you like to go first?
As an Individual
I think status is very important, because until we give them permanent resident status here....
I'm sorry. I'm very emotional about this.
As an Individual
It's going to be very difficult.
Can you imagine me doing the same job almost 10 years ago? It's still happening now. Now I'm a settlement counsellor working with migrant workers, and every day I hear about the abuses and all those things that happened to me. You just can't imagine how difficult it is, not only for me, but particularly for women. They are raising your children here in Canada, and most of them are just seeing their children through Skype. It's so difficult, you know, that they cannot even touch their kids. It's very difficult. As a mother, I feel every emotion that they pour out every time they come to see me. It's very difficult.
At the same time, the abuses have been happening because the work permit is tied to one employer. I'm hoping that, if it's not permanent residency, it can be an open work permit. How do you call that? It's specific to the industry, but they should be able to move around. If they are being abused, they should be able to change their employers. That is something that will probably help a lot of those in caregiving positions.
Their role here is very important to us. They are raising not just our children, but are taking care of our elderly, our seniors. Nobody wants to take these jobs. These women are willing to take these jobs, even after they become permanent residents here. They are studying, going back to that kind of job, being personal support workers, being nurses, and working still in the same caregiving jobs they do. It's very important that we give them something that will help them alleviate these issues they're facing, especially the abuses that have been happening.
Liberal
NDP
Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON
I echo my colleague Ms. Tassi's comments to you, Ms. Paglingayen, on your courage and your strength to be able to come here today. I come from a riding in southwestern Ontario that has many migrant and temporary foreign workers. I know how difficult it is to come forward and tell your story, so I really do appreciate your sharing this with us today.
NDP
Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON
I think that migrant workers need to be heard. They need to have the opportunity to tell their story. I hear there are industries that certainly require workers, and there's a labour shortage and many reasons why.
I'd like to ask my question of Ms. Paglingayen.
It seems that being tied to a single employer for the duration of your pathway to citizenship has brought you and many other workers particular hardships. What is the impact of your immigration status on your ability to have your rights upheld?
As an Individual
Well, during that time when I was working as a caregiver, it was so difficult for me to just quit my job, even if I was already being abused at work, because I wanted to complete the 24 months. During my time it was only three years; now it's four years, but it's still happening to many of them.
Another thing is health care issues. When you switch employers and you don't have the work permit, you cannot renew your OHIP. Clients who have cancer cannot go for treatment because they don't have the necessary health care services. That's one thing. Another thing is they are so scared to tell anyone, even me now, that they're being abused. Some of them are verbally, physically, and sometimes sexually abused, and yet they cannot speak. Sometimes they would call me with no number saying that they needed help. They didn't want to give me their name, but they wanted some advice on what to do, what the next step should be.
These things could be changed. We can do something about this situation.
NDP
Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON
As a mother, what you said about being separated from your family in particular is heart-wrenching. Anyone who's a parent in this room can certainly understand the impact of that. I know that in my region recently we held a Mother's Day event so that the migrant women could come forward and Skype with their children. That's just not enough. That's not acceptable. They should be here with their families and contributing to our communities.
There was a previous private member's bill that was introduced that would have centralized caregivers and employers into an agency. My question goes to Professor Liew. This would take the assignment out of the family and centralize it into an agency. We've heard many stories on how recruitment agencies seek out caregivers, but end up exploiting them and charging high fees, as we just heard. If the recruitment agencies would also be the only eligible employers for caregivers, would that not give them more power over caregivers? What are your thoughts on that suggestion?
Immigration Lawyer and Law Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
I think it doesn't answer all of the issues that could arise between a potential employer and a migrant worker. You never know what's going to happen behind closed doors.
I think there are two important things to highlight. First, migrant workers are not necessarily informed or educated as to the system and they could be told one thing by a person whom they're working for, such as that they need to pay for certain fees or that they need to work a certain number of hours. So I think there are still problems with regard to exploitation. Ms. Paglingayen was correct in saying that the source of this issue is the precariousness of the status, and the promise of more permanent status is the way to help take away that exploitation.
The second way I think to do this is through greater enforcement. There is a lot of activity as of late looking at whether people are adhering to the rules or not, but the issue is that the persons who are working are often punished, as opposed to the persons who are employing these people. I think we need to look at the kinds of enforcement that are taking place and the rules associated with enforcement, and the efforts being made with regards to that should be examined in particular.
NDP
Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON
I'm probably running out of time, but I have a quick question for you. I think we all read the article that you published after the meeting that was cancelled. I want to ask you about not only caregivers, but also other streams of low-skilled temporary foreign workers. What are the biggest steps to take so that they will no longer be exploited and will have security?
Immigration Lawyer and Law Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
This may be a radical thought for the committee, and I might have been a little shy in answering Member Tassi's question, but I actually think that many of the jobs that are here are durable and endurable. We will need people to fill these jobs, as my colleagues have said. I think that an important feature of this review could be considering giving permanent residency at the outset to people who are coming to fill certain kinds of work, and that we shouldn't be shy about this because eventually many of these people do stay. I was listening to testimony a couple of weeks ago. One of the experts here had already said that many of the people who come through this program do end up being permanent residents. Taking away that delay, that anxiety, that stress and separation from family members would help to create a healthy environment for immigration that would fill our labour shortage needs.
