Thank you very much for inviting me here today.
Let me start by saying that what I plan to say to you today is based on my extensive research on this topic for the last six years. This includes interviews with migrant workers, growers, other employers, members of the foreign worker program, as well as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and others. I began publishing based on this material, and some of it you can find: I have a report with the Public Health Agency of Canada, and publication forthcoming in the journal, Canadian Studies in Population.
I recently received funding from the Public Health Agency to do a quantitative survey of migrant workers' health issues, as well as received some support through CERIS, the Ontario Metropolis Centre's immigration research group.
I know there are a number of areas worth pointing out with respect to this, but in the interests of time, I want to focus on some of the most prevalent issues. I've grouped them into five areas, and I'm going to concentrate on the last three.
First, I want to point to the vulnerability or potential vulnerability of foreign workers under this system, both in terms of the foreign worker program, but also the other programs like the seasonal agricultural worker program, and health and safety issues, regulations, monitoring and statistics, workplace cohesion, and I'll make some comments about immigration policy.
With respect to the vulnerability of foreign workers, I think it's important—and I'm sure others have already started to point this out—to recognize that because foreign workers are tied to the employers contractually and typically do not have open work permits, they are tied to their employer. The bilateral agreements in place—for example, in the seasonal agricultural worker program—with sending countries like Mexico have allowed for direct protection from the workers' country of citizenship. However, the recent program initiatives and the expansion of the foreign worker program do not operate through these bilateral agreements.
I'm also concerned about third party recruiters and employment agencies, who have played a significant role for employers in locating workers and setting up contracts. These groups are not regulated, particularly in Ontario. They are regulated in Manitoba, and I would urge Ontario and other provinces to adopt a similar framework.
Foreign workers are not eligible for most settlement services, because those are geared towards permanent migrants, and if they have many needs, they're not being addressed. This causes problems for funding and also for estimating the kinds of services these areas can provide.
With regard to health and safety, a number of things have emerged here. Let me just say that with the expansion into the NOC C and D categories of the low-skill pilot program, we have increased foreign workers not just in agriculture, but also in other areas of the economy, as we've seen in construction and manufacturing. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board's annual report for 2006 estimated that most of these sectors are where the higher rates of workplace injury are taking place. There are some statistics in your notes with respect to this.
The other point I want to make is with respect to monitoring and evaluation, and inadequate guidelines, regulations and provisions, not just for workers but also for employers, who are finding they are struggling to handle a changing workforce and set of relationships with different employees.
With respect to community health, through my work with the Public Health Agency of Canada, I know they are very concerned about the potential dissemination of health problems. I would argue that poor health and safety on farms, and among the more than 20,000 agricultural foreign workers we have, may translate into higher risks for Canadian food production and Canadian food. It's also good that we show this for those involved in other areas of the food sector in different sectors of the economy.
With respect to the Canadian health care system, we have an already overburdened health care system and there's insufficient funding and training to address the myriad health care needs of temporary migrant populations, particularly in the long run.
With respect to regulation and monitoring statistics, this is something that really concerns me, because there's insufficient monitoring of the foreign worker program at a federal level, at provincial levels, and at municipal levels. There's very little direct government involvement. There's no independent body charged with monitoring and evaluating the program. Only in the seasonal agricultural worker program do we have a group, called FARMS, and that group represents mostly the interests of growers and farmers.
It's difficult to obtain quantitative data and statistics on abuse, complaints, return migrants, contract violations, lengths of stay, refugee and permanent residency applicants, rates of attrition, numbers of workers who go AWOL, or overstay work permits. I feel it's a really difficult situation to be in for either a researcher or a service-level or health care practitioner in terms of trying to estimate the kinds of service demands that temporary populations will put on our social and health systems.
With respect to workplace cohesion, there are a number of issues. The lack of information, language training, and cross-cultural sensitivity training for both employers and workers can lead to conditions that are ripe for racism, discrimination, and violence.
I would like to end on a few reflections with respect to the Canadian immigration policy. First of all, I think a foreign worker program encourages a more hierarchical system, one that's based on country of origin, particularly for the seasonal agricultural worker program, where employers basically select their workers based on their country of origin.
I also think that with respect to status transitioning, using the provincial nominee program in conjunction with the temporary foreign worker program is good on the one hand, because it's a channel for permanent status and it allows workers to get a regular status and get access to settlement services. This is working in Brandon, Manitoba, where approximately 538 Maple Leaf Foods employees have applied for permanent status through their provincial nominee program. Most of them are receiving it. However, this still is binding migrants to employers, so I'd be hesitant to use that as the only avenue for permanent residency for that group.
With respect to the private interests that I see driving policy here, I was just at the Metropolis Conference in Halifax. It was contended there that the farm worker program is not expanding, it is employer-driven. This is what keeps being said. What concerns me is that this means there's no cap on foreign workers, and it means we have an employer-driven immigration system, putting nation building in the hands of the private sector--not to mention the role of the third party recruiters in this process.