Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 1st, 2008

Evidence of meeting #19 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was alberta.

On the agenda

Undocumented and Temporary Foreign Workers

Immigration Consultants

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Jim Gurnett Director, Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers

Yessy Byl Temporary Foreign Worker Advocate, Alberta Federation of Labour

Bill Diachuk President, Edmonton, Ukrainian Canadian Social Services

Miles Kliner General Manager, Sunterra Meats - Innisfail

Trevor Mahl President, TC Hunter

Gil McGowan President, Alberta Federation of Labour

Alice Colak Chief Operating Officer, Immigration and Settlement Service, Catholic Social Services

Al Brown Assistant Business Manager, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - Local 424

Michael Toal Representative, Local 1118, United Food and Commercial Workers Union

Lynn Gaudet Immigration Consultant, As an Individual

Tanveer Sharief Immigration Consultant, Commissioner for Oath, Immigration Plus, As an Individual

Peter Veress Founder and President, Vermax Group Inc., As an Individual

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK

The membership would need to aspire to the professional standards in order to be registered.

4:45 p.m.

Immigration Consultant, As an Individual

Lynn Gaudet

Yes.

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK

You would probably have to have a discipline section to it, to discipline those who acted inappropriately. Would you agree?

4:45 p.m.

Immigration Consultant, As an Individual

Lynn Gaudet

I think those are the two core aspects of the mandate, yes.

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK

The third, I would say, based on the law society and how it functions, is an ethics section to deal with ethical issues. Would you agree with that?

4:45 p.m.

Immigration Consultant, As an Individual

Lynn Gaudet

Yes, that's part of discipline.

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK

Does this CSIC as it is now, imperfect or less than perfect, cover those three mandates?

4:45 p.m.

Immigration Consultant, As an Individual

Lynn Gaudet

Yes. There's nothing wrong with the mandate.

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK

Okay. I'm just going to go through that to see the bottom of it.

4:45 p.m.

Immigration Consultant, As an Individual

Lynn Gaudet

Okay.

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK

Have there been some disciplinary hearings, that you know of?

I understand there have been three.

4:45 p.m.

Immigration Consultant, As an Individual

Lynn Gaudet

Actually, I couldn't say.

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK

But there have been disciplinary hearings?

4:45 p.m.

Immigration Consultant, As an Individual

Lynn Gaudet

I assume so. I do recall getting a notice about one woman. I remember one. That's all I remember.

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK

Have there been requirements for professional standards, basic minimum requirements that consultants need to meet?

4:45 p.m.

Immigration Consultant, As an Individual

Lynn Gaudet

Yes.

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK

Okay.

What's the consequence, in the organization as it now is? How do you punish members who need to be punished or disciplined? What's the disciplinary range?

4:50 p.m.

Immigration Consultant, As an Individual

Lynn Gaudet

A person can be spoken to, right up to having their membership revoked.

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK

So the most serious would be a revocation of membership.

4:50 p.m.

Immigration Consultant, As an Individual

Lynn Gaudet

Right.

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK

Are there any provisions in the bylaws for actual fines or disciplinary action other than just losing one's membership?

4:50 p.m.

Immigration Consultant, As an Individual

Lynn Gaudet

It's not on the top of my head, but I remember reading the discipline system at length about a year ago. Yes, there was a gradation of punishment.

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK

The fundamentals are there to protect the public and to preserve a certain measure of integrity in the consultant arena, if you want to call it that. Would you agree that there is that fundamental aspect to it?

4:50 p.m.

Immigration Consultant, As an Individual

Lynn Gaudet

Yes, the mechanisms are there, I think.

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK

You'd just like to see the governance of it changed. Is that correct?