Human Resources Committee on Nov. 15th, 2016

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

—just to finish up on the TFWs.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Peter, can we do it very briefly, in about ten seconds.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

My question is about TFWs and retraining.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

You're going to have another opportunity, Peter.

Maybe we could come back to it.

[Monika Bertrand]

We are working closely with the provinces in sharing data. Again, it comes back to having the information and having the data. Those are provincial programs. We need the provinces to focus on the gaps and the skills gaps in their province. With New Brunswick and with a number of provinces, we are in continuous discussion and we share information about how many people are on employment insurance, how many people are looking for jobs, and what NOC codes or NAICS codes we have available, and we make sure that people get trained.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Excellent. Thank you very much.

We're at a quarter after. We know the bells are going to start in about 15 minutes and we do have some committee business to go. I want to give everyone every opportunity with a final question. We're going to go around and do a three-minute round, if that's okay. We have enough time for that as long as we agree that when the bells start, if we're not done, we can continue for a couple of minutes. It only takes us about 15 minutes to get over there. Do we have agreement?

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

The bells are going to start at around 10:40, so we have lots of time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

I was told 10:30, so if that's been updated then we should have plenty of time.

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

The vote is at 11:10.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Fantastic, okay.

We do have some committee business we need to get to.

I would like to keep it to three minutes just because we do need to get everybody out.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

I haven't spoken at all, so why don't you give me five and give everybody else three?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

I'm not sure if that would be deemed as fair by the chair.

We can stick to the three minutes, and then we will have to ask you to depart fairly quickly.

We're going to start with MP Poilievre, for three minutes, please.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Very quickly, I have some information requests to ESDC from the committee.

Can you please provide us the most updated information on the length of time it takes for each professional body to provide an answer to an internationally trained professional on whether or not their credentials will be recognized to practise in Canada?

I know this data exists at ESDC, and I have sought the chair's permission for this to be provided in writing to the committee.

Second, how many immigrants have applied for, but not yet received, permission to be licensed in the profession or trade for which they were trained in another jurisdiction?

Those are two information requests. I'm 90% sure that the department has the second, and I'm 100% sure that the department has the first.

My next question is for Statistics Canada. Can Statistics Canada indicate what kind of information the agency has on the effect on incomes of immigrants failing to have their credentials recognized here in Canada?

[Heather Dryburgh]

Let me restate that. It's the effect on immigrants' income of not having their credentials recognized?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

That's right.

[Heather Dryburgh]

You could do a comparison between certain ones whose credentials...for example, engineers. You could go by occupation and look at those incomes versus incomes for others. There are probably things you could do analytically.

I don't think we would be able to say that this group of immigrants specifically has all those educational qualifications that are not recognized in Canada. I don't believe we can identify that. However, we could do a kind of general analysis.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Could you provide the committee with that?

[Heather Dryburgh]

I'm not aware if it's been done.

I will verify whether it's been done and see what it take to do that analysis, and then I will do that.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Will you get back to the committee on that?

[Heather Dryburgh]

Yes.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

All right.

We do have data showing that immigrants are typically more educated than the Canadian-born population and yet have lower earnings. One of the causes that they list in surveys is that their credentials are not recognized in Canada. That data I know is available, because I have it in my possession, but I would like to see what else you have to expound upon this phenomenon.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much.

We'll go quickly over to Peter for three minutes.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I have two quick questions.

First, Mr. Ryan, you mentioned the issue of payday loans. In my riding, I know there are a lot of people who have to access payday loans, at a very, very high price. It's not necessarily a question of literacy; it's also a question of accessibility to financial institutions. A lot of the larger banks, and unfortunately some of the credit unions, shut out those folks who have very few assets and very little means from having a regular bank account.

I'm wondering to what extent your agency is talking to government departments about increasing accessibility by day labourers—which I once was—to real banking services, including having access to a line of credit that would mean they wouldn't have to access payday loans.

[Jérémie Ryan]

The issue of payday loans is something that's under provincial jurisdiction. We have been working with the consumer measures committee that's headed up by Industry Canada. They have an FPT group, so we've been working with the provinces to see how we can address some of the issues we're seeing.

When we held our consultations with Canadians on financial literacy, what came out was that payday loans do offer a service to members of a certain segment of the population because they do not have access to regular banking services. The FCAC does oversee a specific regulation around bank closures. The commissioner of the FCAC can impose community meetings to have discussions with financial institutions once they advise us that they are closing a branch. That allows us to look at alternatives, so possibly credit unions, if they're still in the community. We have worked with community-based organizations as well, to develop asset-building programs and micro-loan programs, so that Canadians can have access to short-term credit products at an affordable cost. Much more needs to be done in this area.

The FCAC chairs an interdepartmental committee on financial literacy. Industry Canada, ESDC, StatsCan and Aboriginal Affairs are part of this committee. We're trying to look at alternatives to payday loans. We're trying to look at access to banking services.

We have also worked with the private sector. A couple of years ago, we worked with Gay Lea Foods, who financed a project through the Canadian Co-operative Association in the north. We would provide financial literacy training to co-op employees. We know that in the north and remote communities, they do not have access to banking services, and they become, then, the local bank. Their services can be quite costly, so in working with them we are able to negotiate some lower rates for people who are looking to cash cheques or transfer moneys from one community to the other.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much.

MP Long, go ahead, please, for three minutes.