Good afternoon.
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in these hearings and the opportunity to share our observations and experiences. I guess they are based from the front lines. I work for Catholic Social Services, which is a social service agency, and among our other responsibilities we are a settlement service agency working with many immigrants and refugees, basically facilitating their settlement, integration, and contribution and participation in all aspects of life in Canada.
We have programs in Edmonton and Red Deer, and the comments I'm going to be making reflect our experiences in both of those communities. Red Deer is in central Alberta, about 150 kilometres from Edmonton. I also wanted to note that in addition to comments I'm making on behalf of my organization, we are a member of our provincial umbrella group, the Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies.
I think some of my colleagues may have been here ahead of me earlier this afternoon, Jim Gurnett from the Mennonite Centre and so on, so probably some of my remarks will be similar to his. Our 20 member agencies represent communities from Fort McMurray to Medicine Hat and Brooks. So we're throughout Alberta, in large and small centres, and the complex issues facing temporary foreign workers are a concern to all of our members.
To start with, as I say, these are observations and experiences from the front lines of a community social service agency. As Gil has mentioned, with the issue of temporary foreign workers we have seen such a tremendous increase over the past two years. Going back to our records through 2005, we saw maybe five, ten workers approaching our organization for assistance. In 2006 and 2007 that number rose significantly to more than 100 to 130 per month. So it's a significant increase and an unexpected piece of business that we are attempting to manage.
Before I go on, I just want to say that we are a social service agency, so people who come to us have issues and problems. I do want to acknowledge that of the employers who bring in temporary foreign workers, I don't know how many there are, but probably a significant number, if not the majority, are responsible employers who do provide adequate support for the workers they're bringing into Canada. I just wanted to make that note.
I know I have limited time, so to summarize, as I said, we provide services to over 100 temporary foreign workers. They come from various countries, but the top source countries are Mexico, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, and numerous eastern European countries, such as Poland, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, etc.
The majority come to our office indicating that they feel they are mistreated, neglected, and often exploited. There are four areas that they come to us to seek support and assistance for. I should also say they come to us because many of them—the majority, we feel—are vulnerable. They don't speak sufficient English; they're not fluent in English. They don't know their rights and responsibilities in their position as a temporary foreign worker in our country.
So the four key areas are employment-related concerns, employment standards. Basically they're not receiving the wages they were promised or they expected before they arrived in Alberta. The work conditions have changed. They're not being compensated for overtime. Their work conditions regarding responsibilities, what they expected to do and what they are actually being asked to do on the job, are at significant variance.
Housing and living conditions: the majority complain that they are concerned about poor and crowded conditions and the high cost of paying for those poor and crowded conditions.
Brokers and recruiters are a significant source of concern.
On the fees, people who come to us tell us they had to pay between $6,000 and $25,000 to secure a job in Alberta. The cost of recruiters continues after they are here, because the recruiters continue to charge for things like translation of documents, interpretation of services, settlement services, and so on.
Probably the biggest distress faced by temporary foreign workers is that they feel they were provided inaccurate information about what their lives would be like in Canada. They expected a fast track to permanent residency, and that is not always possible. They expected to be reunited with family members shortly upon arrival. So there is a lot of stress and distress that people are faced with, in addition to the high fees they need to repay. Many of them are living in poverty, accessing support from community organizations, food banks, faith and church communities, cultural communities, and so on, to make ends meet.
I think those are the key issues, and there are some recommendations.