Evidence of meeting #33 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 work.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Order, please.
We will get our meeting going and welcome Stewart Mussel Farms. Stephen Stewart is the owner, from Prince Edward Island. He has his own operation over in P.E.I.
It's good to have you here today, Stewart. You have an hour, between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., or however long it takes. It could be half an hour, it could be 45 minutes, or it could be an hour. We have up to an hour if you require it.
I know you have an opening statement, so you go right to it.
Stephen Stewart Owner, Stewart Mussel Farms Inc.
All right. I have some history with the temporary foreign worker program. I just wrote up a couple of pages about the situation and what happened to my company.
On May 6, 2007, I went to Halifax to pick up 11 foreign workers from Sri Lanka whom we'd arranged to have come to P.E.I. to fill a labour shortage on our mussel farms. We spent $20,000 renovating a house we own next door for them to live in, and we agreed to purchase a 12-passenger van to transport them to work, the bank, the grocery store, and so on. We began the process of bringing these foreign workers to Canada in December 2006. We were told that we had to provide them with return airline tickets, which totalled $21,000. In return, they signed an employment contract agreeing to work for Stewart Mussel Farms Inc. for a period of eight months.
We had a few hurdles to overcome, such as problems with language barriers and the change in temperature and culture, but things seemed to move along quite smoothly. We made it a point every evening to visit with them to make sure they understood everything and to answer any questions they might have. We made sure they got bank accounts set up and social insurance numbers, and we made sure they were able to wire money back to their families. They told me that what they made in less than a week working for my company was more than they could make at home in a month.
On Friday, June 8, a month after they arrived, none of the Sri Lankan workers showed up for work. They had all disappeared. After I contacted the RCMP on their disappearance, officers came to search my property. They brought in police dogs to check for drugs and explosives. After they left, I contacted some local cab companies and found out that at approximately 3 a.m. these 11 workers left in two taxi vans, with no passports, only the clothes on their backs, to head to Ottawa.
I was told by the cab company that they had inquired about the cost of this trip two weeks before they actually left. They had left all their luggage, clothes, and family photos behind. Later the same afternoon we located them on the west side of Montreal by talking to the cab company. After reporting their whereabouts to the RCMP and Citizenship and Immigration, we were told that they were breaking no laws. The work visa stated that they could only work for Stewart Mussels Farm, Inc., but they were free to roam and travel where they wanted until April 2008, when their visas expired. And as long as they worked for no one else, they were okay.
I asked if they would be intercepted and questioned, and I was told that they would not be. At this point I was getting very annoyed and asked the question, “What if they're on the way to blow up the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa?” The answer was that then someone would be in trouble.
Once Citizenship and Immigration got involved, we were told that this kind of thing happens all the time. The foreign workers disappear, never to be found again. This was news to us. If this was the case, someone in government should at least have given us a heads-up that this happens all the time. We don't understand how this is possible. They signed employment contracts with us, but because of the way the Canadian laws are written, these foreign workers are free to roam the country for the length of their visa, and we were now worse off than before bringing these workers here. We were now short 11 workers and down the $50,000 we had spent to bring them here, house them, transport them, and so on.
In the months since the workers left, there have been numerous messages from Sri Lanka left on the telephone at the house they were living in. One man's wife was crying over the phone, because she had no idea where he was. One of them has kept in contact with us on a fairly regular basis. He's living in Toronto, working as a dishwasher. He knows where the rest of them are and what they're doing. Another has phoned looking for his T4 slips. He told us very proudly that now that he is living in Canada, he has to file taxes.
Many stories have emerged as to why they left, but it boils down to their not wanting to go back to Sri Lanka when their visas expired. We have even had calls from Sri Lanka wanting to know if we need any more workers. When I told this to one of the guys who left, he laughed and said, “Yes, everyone wants to come to Canada now.” In other words, it's too easy to get here and stay. Canadian immigration seems to be a joke to them.
We've been criticized locally for bringing foreign workers in to work. Some have even commented that we got what we deserved. We felt this was the only way to fill the shortage of workers. If there were people here who wanted to work, we'd hire them. Some people are not cut out for labour work, and others just don't want to do it.
Our labour market opinion, which we had to work hard to get, has expired, and now we have to start the entire process again if we're looking to bring in workers. The bottom line is that we have mussel farms that need workers who want to work and will show up.
I'm not against immigration. I believe our country is in need of a greater workforce for labour jobs. I feel Canadians need to realize how easy it is for foreign workers to come to Canada, leave the company they were supposed to work for, and travel freely around Canada without worrying. As long as they don't legally work for anyone else, they aren't breaking any laws. This is not acceptable to employers like me who spend thousands of dollars to bring the workers here, or to Canadians whose tax dollars help to support the workers while they are here living in Canada.
In conclusion, in my opinion there are some serious flaws in the foreign worker system that need to be fixed. This country was built on the dreams of immigrants coming here to work and get a better life for themselves and their family. This is the way the foreign worker system should work, not as a joke to the ones back in the home country looking for a quick way to beat the regular immigration process.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
So Stephen, you spent $50,000 in preparation for these people to come to work for your company?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
And, they just up and left in the middle of it all. So did you contact Immigration when that happened?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Have you had any contact from Immigration as to what might be done, what could be done, what you should do?
Owner, Stewart Mussel Farms Inc.
They came out and confiscated all the passports and stuff that we had in our safe. Other than that, there was no recourse, nothing we could do. As I said, they're breaking no laws. Provided they didn't work for any other company in Canada, they were free to do what they pleased for the length of their visas.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Under the contract you had, you were paying them comparable wages to what you would be paying somebody from P.E.I.?
Owner, Stewart Mussel Farms Inc.
Yes, they were being paid the exact same wage.
Conservative
Owner, Stewart Mussel Farms Inc.
I brought in 11 people. We were planning to bring in 12, and then at the last minute, for some reason, one couldn't make it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
So obviously the foreign worker program hasn't worked too well for you.
Owner, Stewart Mussel Farms Inc.
The big part for me was to be told by Immigration, the day they all disappeared, that this happens all the time, and that people come to Canada and disappear, never to be seen again. I really felt that I should have had a bit of a heads-up on this before I spent six months going through the program, getting registered, and getting the approval from the government to bring these people, only to have them tell me that afterwards.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Yes, because really, once they are here, you don't have any control over keeping them here, because a fellow can get up any morning at all and decide to leave the job and leave the province and go somewhere else. I'm just wondering how it could be a little better controlled, because obviously a contract didn't work.
Owner, Stewart Mussel Farms Inc.
I understand that if foreign workers are going to come into any country, then obviously they have to be looked after and protected to make sure they're not being mistreated and abused and that kind of thing. But by the same token, there needs to be a bit of protection for the employer who's investing all the money to bring them here.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I hope we can get the researchers to contact Immigration to find out how often this happens--that would be a nice figure to have--so we can get that before we meet again.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
You advertised locally for local employees, and you didn't get anybody?
Owner, Stewart Mussel Farms Inc.
No. Most of the people have gone west. If you think about it, we all teach our kids now to stay in school. Computers and office work are what we train everybody to do now. It doesn't seem to matter. Anybody who used to be around to work in our industry has gone west.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Mr. Chair, I'm so amazed. When I first got into Parliament back in 1993—Madame Folco can probably attest to it also—the Atlantic members were forever saying that we have to preserve the jobs in aquaculture; we had high employment, and it was a terrible situation going across the country, with worker shortages everywhere. Clearly, that's not the case in Canada anymore.
How long was the work visa; was it eight months?
Owner, Stewart Mussel Farms Inc.
Their contract was for eight months, but the way the system works, their visa was good for a year.