Evidence of meeting #22 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 consultants.
11 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
I think it was you, John, who mentioned “rogue agents” who are filing as immigration consultants. How prevalent is the problem?
11 a.m.
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants
We referred to it as complaints from our members and basically non-jurisdictional complaints that we've received from the community.
Pick up any ethnic newspaper in Canada and you will see advertisements of people who are advertising their services for employment services right now. Let's face it, our immigration system now brings in temporary workers faster than any other type of immigration to Canada in the selective system. Therefore, rogue agents are taking advantage of this because money changes hands quickly.
11 a.m.
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants
Most provinces have provincial legislation on employment agents. What is missing is a federal counterpart. There's nothing at the federal level to deal with this.
11 a.m.
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants
Well, a self-regulating body of human resource agents.... I'm not sure what the government will decide on that, but there's definitely a need to regulate in this area.
11 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Yes, we heard a lot, as a matter of fact, as we went, about the immigration consultant end of it.
You don't have AGMs and that kind of thing. Is that true?
11 a.m.
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants
I'm sorry, are you talking about CSIC?
11:05 a.m.
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants
Absolutely, we've had AGMs. The most recent situation—
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Really? We heard in Moose Jaw and we heard—where else?—in Edmonton that there's never been an AGM, that there's never any communication with the members, and that in terms of training they send out a video and charge $800.
11:05 a.m.
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants
The issues I want to speak to today are the agents. I'd be more than happy to entertain issues about immigration consultants and our governance model in our appearance in Toronto. I don't want to take away from the fellow panellists who have legitimate concerns.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
We'll talk about these issues in Toronto when we get CSIC there. I'm sure they'll set us straight on a few issues—I hope.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
April 3rd, 2008 / 11:05 a.m.
Vice-President, Government and Industry Relations, Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
Yes, quickly.
First, absolutely, the need to rationalize and sort out the mandates of multiples agencies is critical to the whole process. But for us, if there were a single thing.... Our submission lists several things we would recommend on program design and administration, but at this point, the single biggest issue and frustration we have is processing times in Alberta. There's a huge backlog. We have plants in Lethbridge and two in Edmonton.
I think what's important to understand is that it's not just a question of the workers or whether we have them or not; there's a whole series of spin-offs or of negative consequences that result from the labour shortage when you can't fill those jobs. Productivity in the plant suffers. The other workers suffer, because they're working extra overtime, they're stressed, they're trying to maintain a plant environment where they simply don't have the help they need. Product quality suffers. Animal welfare suffers—because we're dealing with live animals, you need the people to properly manage the system. Farmers suffer, because now the plant isn't operating to take their animals in a sequence that we would normally want. And the community suffers.
So it's more than just us as an individual employer.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
I'm going to have to cut it off there, unless someone wants to make a final comment, because we've gone overtime. I still have Mr. Zaifman, who is going to make a presentation—on the immigration consultants, is it?
11:05 a.m.
Economic Development Officer, City of Brandon, Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
If I may just take a moment, I will leave this comment to Rory. He's certainly well versed. I want to share a perspective, going back to the first question that was asked. I missed on the response time coming in, with regard to allowing temporary foreign workers to move between businesses.
The one caution I want to leave you, when you're evaluating that potential, is from a community perspective. When you're looking at how to transfer the fees associated with a foreign worker coming in, be mindful of the significant investment that is put into a successful program like Maple Leaf's, which will not show up in fees. As a community, without that successful a program we suffer, and the workers coming in suffer.
All I do is caution, please do not look at it on a straight fee basis, because the investment in infrastructure that Maple Leaf has made in Brandon is significant, and that is why we are so successful.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Thank you. That's a very good point.
I want to thank you for coming today. Stay tuned. We'll have some good recommendations that I'm sure you'll agree with. Thank you.
I guess, Mr. Zaifman, you'll be staying at the table, will you?
We'll just take a break for a couple of minutes.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
We are back again.
I want to welcome you again, Mr. Zaifman. For the record, you are an immigration lawyer. You have a brief to present to us today on immigration consultants.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
11:15 a.m.
Lawyer, Zaifman Immigration Lawyers, As an Individual
I think that's more than enough time.
I've been an immigration lawyer for over twenty years, and it has never been as bad as it is today in the area of immigration consultants.
Let me define what I mean by immigration consultants. We have licensed immigration consultants who are licensed by the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants, but they not the primary focus of my comments.
The primary focus of my comments are those consultants who are unlicensed and unregulated. They primarily operate in a variety of ethnic communities and are the ones committing the most serious and flagrant abuses.
It is epidemic. It is not getting better. I think that if anything comes out of these hearings, it is the recognition that it is a problem that must be addressed.
To understand how someone who is not licensed can become an immigration consultant, one merely has to look at any local ethnic newspaper. People are advertising services they are not qualified to provide, and that's in Canada. Outside of Canada the problem is even more endemic, because there is really no effective policing mechanism.
I want to say a few words about the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants. I'll leave it to them in their hearings to explain to you what their role is, but clearly their role, as they've said in their earlier presentation, is not to deal with unlicensed consultants. That's not within their jurisdiction; they can't deal with this group of people.
Even with licensed consultants they do not have the authority--as, for example, a law society does--to come in and shut a member down. If a lawyer is committing breaches of the code of professional conduct or if complaints are made against that lawyer, the law societies--and this is, I think, in any jurisdiction--can step in and can immediately revoke that lawyer's licence. In fact, they've done it on several occasions in Manitoba, and at least on one occasion with an immigration lawyer.
As far as I understand it, CSIC does not have that power. They have a regulatory power and they have a complaint mechanism. Either they have to be given the tools to do it or that tool must reside someplace else.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Excuse me. I don't mean to interrupt you, but how come you can't shut down these unscrupulous rogue agents?
11:15 a.m.
Lawyer, Zaifman Immigration Lawyers, As an Individual
They're not regulated by CSIC, the regulatory body that is responsible. If they don't come within their jurisdiction, then you have to have the tools under the Immigration Act.
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
