Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 17th, 2008

[Robert Carrier, Bloc, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

I'm completing the questions I have on the subject.

Earlier, Mr. Power, you suggested bringing in American workers rather than other foreign workers, since American workers have similar training to ours, which is more practical for us. You admit you have a need for foreign labour, since you're talking about favouring the importing of American workers. That's admitting that we lack resources here.

If you had the choice between accelerating the immigration process and only importing temporary labour, what would you choose? Would you prefer our immigration system to be more effective? We would have new citizens who would stay here, not just workers who want to earn money then leave.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

A brief comment, if you would, Mike, and then we have to wrap up.

[Michael Power]

When I talk about the American situation, I'm not speaking specifically about Newfoundland. We have linemen here. We don't have thousands of them, but we have enough to keep the province going. We have plenty of electricians in this province, more than for the work available.

With respect to bringing in foreign workers on a permanent basis, we're not opposed to that. We just did that in cooperation with Nova Scotia Power to meet the requirements of their workforce in Nova Scotia. A number of their linemen have left after 15 years with the company and have gone to the United States to work with power companies down there, because there's more money. It's all about money and being mobile. You won't keep people pinned down in any one place when it comes to that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I have to wrap it.

I just want to get a point of clarification on one thing. Barbara, I think you asked the question on settlement. Did you ask a question on settlement funding?

[Barbara Burnaby]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Did you say we don't get any settlement funding?

[Barbara Burnaby]

Not in the sense that there is a relationship between the federal government and Quebec. Quebec was the first one to get that kind of thing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

But we do get—

[Barbara Burnaby]

No, they don't. It's only happened over the past number of years, over the time since the Quebec government had that kind of thing, and the high immigration provinces got it first. British Columbia got it, and Ontario, which is always feisty about the whole thing, took its time—

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

All of them are getting it now.

[Barbara Burnaby]

No, they're not all—

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Yes, they are, because we're getting settlement funding under the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Agreement on Provincial Nominees.

[Barbara Burnaby]

Nominees, yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Yes, we get settlement funding. We get our per capita share of the $4.5 billion that was made available in the budget this year for settlement funding. We get our share of that.

They asked me just recently if I would preside at a ceremony at the Association for New Canadians to talk about settlement funding and our share of settlement funding for the province. So we do get settlement funding.

[Barbara Burnaby]

In relation to the provincial nominees, that's right. That's not quite the same as some of the other relationships. The relationship with Quebec with respect to language training, for example, has been unique since the—

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

But they all get it under—

[Barbara Burnaby]

No, no, it has. Believe me, it has been unique since the 1970s and 1980s.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I've opened up something now that we could go on about all day, so I'm going to wrap it up at this point.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I don't want to add to the confusion, except to say this: Quebec, of course, has an agreement peculiar to Quebec.

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

That's why they're bilateral.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Ontario has its agreement. Then the other provinces, including my province—and I'm not sure about this province—has an agreement that does have settlement funding come through to it. It does have a formula that bases it on numbers of newcomers you have coming in, and so on. So that all figures into it, but it would be unusual if just this province was not covered.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I have the 10 agreements right here.

For instance—and I'm not going to go into it—the Agreement for Canada-British Columbia Cooperation on Immigration, the Agreement for Canada-Alberta Cooperation on Immigration, the Canada-Saskatchewan Immigration Agreement, the Canada-Quebec Accord, the Agreement for Canada-Nova Scotia Cooperation on Immigration, and the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Agreement on Provincial Nominees.

Their settlement funding comes in there.

Now I have to wrap. Thank you very much for your presentations today, and stay tuned for our report. Thank you.

The meeting is adjourned.