Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 25th, 2008

[Les Linklater]

We're looking at how we can streamline our processes in Vegreville, but these people would be deemed to be in status during a transition between one employer and another.

[Susan Kadis, Liberal, Thornhill, ON]

Again, the issue can't be overemphasized in terms of what the needs are going forward so that we do ensure that we have those capable people available to meet the needs of the Canadian population.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Thank you.

Mr. Komarnicki, or was it Mr. Batters? If you want to share, you can.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I have just a couple of questions flowing from the discussion on temporary foreign workers. Bill C-17, as we talked about briefly, is a step in the direction of offering some form of protection to vulnerable temporary foreign workers. Can you expand on that, and would it or an expanded form of that be the type of direction that could be taken to protect temporary foreign workers?

[Les Linklater]

Bill C-17 is designed to provide visa officers with the tools to be able to deny a work permit to someone who may be destined to a situation of potential abuse or exploitation. This would happen overseas before the potential worker was actually in Canada. But as I mentioned earlier, the way the act and the regulations are written now, they are very directive. There is no opportunity for negative discretion of any kind within the act. So Bill C-17 would allow the minister, based on objective evidence, to issue instructions to visa officers for them to take into consideration any evidence that would link particular situations with vulnerability or the potential for abuse or exploitation and refuse the permit to someone based on those circumstances.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Flowing from that, I would certainly encourage the committee to bring Bill C-17 back before this committee for consideration as a piece of legislation.

I noted that you handed out a pamphlet called Important Information for Temporary Workers Working in Canada, which essentially gives them what their rights might be and their obligations, who they can contact, including the various provincial departments dealing with labour standards and that kind of thing. That is one example of perhaps how this issue of temporary foreign workers can be dealt with.

I noticed that in the live-in caregiver side of the program, they are either given courses before they come here to Canada, which are given in their language, or there are certain steps that are taken that would certainly enhance their ability once they got here to deal with labour standard types of issues and others as well. How is that being done, and can that be transposed to temporary foreign workers other than those in the live-in caregiver program?

[Les Linklater]

Certainly with regard to the seasonal agricultural workers program, given the institutional history and the involvement of partner governments, notably Mexico and Commonwealth Caribbean governments, they've developed the expertise to be able to provide that additional support to their workers before they come to Canada, so they can counsel them on what to expect here.

With regard to other employers and other temporary foreign workers, some of the efforts we've undertaken collectively would include the online manual for employers wanting to hire temporary foreign workers and the establishment of temporary foreign worker units across the country to take a more hands-on approach with employers in the regions, together with provincial governments, looking at how we can do joint promotion with provincial governments.

This happens quite regularly in Alberta and British Columbia, and it's a model that we'd like to replicate more across the country, where federal and provincial representatives are going out to the employer community to educate them about their rights and obligations under the program, to advise them of the requirements of provincial statutes such as those related to the use of recruiters, and certainly to help them understand the immigration process from A to Z, starting with the labour market opinion process, the work permit process, and arrival at a port of entry with CBSA.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

It would seem to me that the robust empowering of workers, given language barriers, given the assimilation to a new culture, would be the type of thing that could be looked at in terms of ensuring that the abuses that were earlier referred to would be minimized. Would you agree?

[Les Linklater]

There are a number of employers who are exemplary users of this program and they offer support services to their workers once they arrive. They provide additional training, whether it's official language training or sensitization to their new local communities, and these are employers that we want to work with more, to use as an example for others.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I know there has been a significant amount of funding that we have provided--$1.4 billion over five years--and much of that deals with integration, settlement, and so on. Insofar as temporary foreign workers are concerned, is there a need to deal with, not just the integration of those who are landed immigrants or permanent residents, but also temporary foreign workers, and is a program developed for that specific purpose?

[Les Linklater]

At this point there is no program for settlement funding per se for temporary foreign workers. The terms and conditions of our current program structure direct that this funding be used for the establishment of permanent residents.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Thank you, Mr. Komarnicki.

Mr. Telegdi.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Linklater, how many languages is this pamphlet that we have translated into?

[Les Linklater]

Right now we have the pamphlet in English, French, and Spanish, and it's being translated into Mandarin, Indian, and Tagalog.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Okay.

Let's say I'm working on a farm picking tobacco and I don't know how to use the computer. The pamphlet gives a bunch of websites for more information on CIC. Do we have information for those folks that they can get to that is not so high-tech?

[Les Linklater]

Yes. Telephone numbers are available, as are those for local offices of the CBSA.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Of course, you'd have to be able to read and you'd have to have access to a phone and all those good things.

I have another question. Mr. MacDougall, could you get us a list for the last five years as to how much money we're spending on removals, and please give a breakdown on the various categories?

[Robert MacDougall]

I can get that for you, although I would say right off the top that the categories will probably be split between criminals and failed refugee claimants, because the system doesn't capture them as specific to categories like undocumented workers, for example. They themselves might fall into a number of different categories, as was discussed earlier. I can certainly get you the dollars spent on removals and I can tell you the breakdown between those two areas.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

But if we have a failed refugee claimant here for any period of time, that person will probably become an undocumented worker. You said you have a breakdown for undocumented workers but not....

[Robert MacDougall]

No, we don't have that.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Oh, I thought you said there was one category, which was refugees and criminals.

[Robert MacDougall]

No. Those are the only two.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Those are the only two you have.

[Robert MacDougall]

Yes, as far as the categories of removals as we document them.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

What happens if somebody's visa has expired? They are neither refugees nor....