Good afternoon.
Mr. Chair, vice-chairs, and members of the standing committee, thank you for the opportunity to present our views today on behalf of UFCW Canada. We've also provided the standing committee with broader written submissions.
My name is Naveen Mehta. I'm general counsel and director of human rights for UFCW Canada. In this role I've had the privilege and honour of advocating for a sustainable and progressive immigration system for the last decade.
As you may know, UFCW Canada is one of the largest private sector unions in the country, with thousands of migrant worker members and more than any other union in Canada. We're in a unique position in that we can give you a genuine account of how our immigration system could work for the benefit of Canadians, the Canadian economy, employers, and workers.
I have the privilege of being joined by Claudia Colocho, who is a member of our union and of Maple Leaf Foods in Brandon. She's going to detail her experiences as a temporary foreign worker, or migrant worker, in a unionized workplace where both the union and the employer work together to ensure utilization of a robust provincial nominee program for almost every migrant worker member of that workplace. Claudia is here to give you a sense of what a sustainable and progressive immigration regime could look like when it comes to being aligned with labour market needs and providing a significant opportunity for permanent residency.
Given the working relationship between UFCW Canada and our employers, such as Maple Leaf meats, Olymel, HyLife, and Cargill, Claudia's story is not a sad one, as opposed to the heart-wrenching experiences of other migrant workers in non-unionized settings that you've heard over the last two weeks.
With that, I'd like to turn it over to Claudia.