Good morning, everyone. Thank you for your invitation.
We are an international recruiting firm and we would like to present the views of employers. I am therefore going to speak mostly to the TFWP, the temporary foreign workers program. I'll be talking about the TFWP, not seasonal employment.
I'm going to give you a brief introduction to our company.
In the last four years, we have brought more than 1,000 workers to Canada. We have already selected more than 2,000 workers. So a lot of workers will be arriving in the near future.
Our head office is in Quebec, but we have offices in Burlington, in the Toronto region, and in Alberta. We have brought workers to British Columbia and other provinces.
Although the labour shortage is more severe in Quebec, it also affects all of the other provinces.
I'm now going to make a few suggestions for providing more protection for our employers.
In the provinces other than Quebec, an LMIA, a labour market impact assessment, can be requested without providing candidates' names. We think that is somewhat unfair. Some employers apply for an LMIA and then recruit immigrant workers from other employers who made the original efforts to get those workers.
We would prefer the employers who did the original work to be protected, so the movement or mobility of foreign workers would be a bit more difficult, while we do understand the importance of making it easier to report non-complying employers. We are aware that some employers may exaggerate, but we believe the mobility of workers has to be made a bit more difficult also because obtaining citizenship is easier in certain provinces.
We believe that Service Canada definitely has a huge problem with the current processing times. For employers, the average wait is 63 business days. That is not practical and employers are suffering the consequences. The average is 63 days, but it is impossible for the employer to know whether it will be 40 days or 80 days. We want to propose solutions to reduce processing times for an LMIA application and in particular for a Quebec acceptance certificate, which is unique to Quebec.
Employers believe the situation at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is out of control. It is very difficult to talk to people and get answers. A lot of answers from the department are not given in accordance with the procedural rules, which are not followed and obeyed. The department rejects applications without first asking for explanations and without allowing time to provide them. Both IRCC and Service Canada should work more in partnership with businesses.
We are talking about the TFWP, but we truly believe in a long-term solution for businesses. Two things are important for that to happen.
First, the entry of spouses has to be facilitated by giving them open work permits. They would then partially make up for the labour shortage by holding certain positions, sometimes low-paid or lower-skilled. We have to facilitate their entry, not just in qualified occupations, but in skill level C jobs.
Second, we have to make it easier for workers in low-paid and skill level C jobs to get permanent residence. Of course, that point undeniably has a significant effect on Quebec, but I think we need long-term labour and the workers have to stay here with us. For our employers, it is important to make it easier for these workers to get permanent residence.
Thank you.