Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 28th, 2008

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I don't think we can get into points of clarification.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Chair, the minister is misleading this committee.

[An hon. member]

[Inaudible—Editor].

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Yes, it does. The medicals have to be in place.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Order, please. Order.

Now we'll go to Madam Grewal, please, for five minutes.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Madam Minister, our country needs more skilled workers, as you know. We have a serious shortage of workers of various skill levels in our country, and lots of those shortages are especially in western Canada.

Minister, what are you doing to ensure that Canada has the skilled workers it needs?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

We're doing a number of things.

Perhaps I'll clarify for a moment. When we issue a visa, it's usually good for up to one year—and that's one physical year as opposed to one calendar year. If we issue a visa in December, for example, we have no guarantee that the individual will be here before the end of December. They have twelve months in which they can exercise that visa. That's just a point of clarification, if I may, to try to prevent any further discussion on that issue.

In terms of skilled workers, we're doing a number of things. We've expanded the temporary foreign workers program very significantly and very deliberately, because there have been a huge number of requests from industry looking to fill jobs at all skill levels.

Demand for particular occupations varies across the country. To that end, we've streamlined processes considerably. We've introduced lists of occupations under pressure that will help to accelerate that process. We have established offices in five cities across this country to help businesses find and find out the process for getting temporary foreign workers here. We've also introduced a number of other programs that make it easier to identify where to get temporary foreign workers. We're working with industry in that regard. And on the skilled workers' permanent residence side, we're also helping them find out where and how to get their credentials recognized before they even arrive here, through the Foreign Credentials Referral Office.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

How has our government improved on our temporary worker program so as to help sectors that need these skilled workers right now?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

We've made some significant improvements. In fact, I believe in British Columbia there are 33 occupation codes for which we have taken the processing time from 24 weeks down to as little as 5 days. That's a pretty significant improvement.

Through that process, we're getting people landing here with a temporary work permit and going to work immediately. They get Canadian experience, and once we launch the Canadian experience class this summer, they will be well on their way to qualifying for permanent residence without having to leave the country. Employers who have invested in these individuals will then be able to continue to rely on them to get the benefit of their expertise. They won't have to replace them every year.

So there are a lot of good things that we're doing, but we're particularly speeding things up and making it possible to get these individuals here, because it's so difficult and so time-consuming to get them here through the permanent class at the moment.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Mr. Chair, do I have more time left?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

You have one minute and 52 seconds.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

I'll pass my time to Mr. Petit.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Mr. Petit, you're on for the next round, but go ahead if you wish to take a minute and a half now.

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Minister Finley, Mr. Ganim and Mr. Fadden.

I have a very simple question to ask you. You concluded agreements to recognize diplomas obtained outside this country. I am from the Province of Quebec and am myself from an immigrant family. We experienced certain problems for several reasons, among which my father's credentials were not recognized by Canada. At the time, the Liberal government was in power. After that, we faced another problem.

We are very concerned with immigration in my region. I come from an immigrant community. We strive to recognize not only professional diplomas, but also trade diplomas held by electricians, plumbers, etc. Yet, I have to deal with unions that are against this because of requisite numbers of hours worked have not been attained. Ultimately, electricians are forced to become dishwashers. In Montreal, there are doctors who are driving taxis. This is a serious problem.

From my understanding, $200 million were transferred to Quebec but we don't know if the money got to the right destination. I'd like you to tell me what the Canadian government is doing to help immigrants that arrive and want their diplomas to be recognized, be they professional or trade diplomas. What are we doing to help them integrate into Canadian society?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

You are right, of course.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Is the microphone back? I was told that the minister's mike had failed and that our technical people want to replace your microphone, Minister.

Sorry about all of these technical glitches we have today. It seems that whenever we broadcast, we're always having problems technically.

Is it back now? Okay. It is back, and you can go ahead anytime you're ready, Madam Minister.

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

I'll ask the gremlins to hold off for a little while with our technical difficulties today.

We want newcomers to succeed as soon as possible. That is why we increased funding to the settlement program by $1.4 billion and we have established the Foreign Credentials Referrals Office. Given that the recognition of credentials falls under the jurisdiction of provinces and not of the federal department, we are working with the provinces to make sure that organizations that are working under their authority are assisting them in recognizing the credentials of newcomers. This is very important to us and we are working together with the provinces to this end.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Thank you, Mr. Petit.

Madam Beaumier.

[Colleen Beaumier, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

Thank you. I'll be sharing my time, I believe.

Minister, I appreciated your assessment of the foreign students who were coming here to Canada. However, we have a lot of undocumented workers living in this country--skilled labourers--who more than meet the same qualifications as these students after they've been here a couple of years. They've settled; they have families. They're being exploited; they're being left out, and they're not paying taxes.

I don't see any plans for dealing with these people, other than the deportation that started soon after Mr. Harper formed the government.

I'm wondering if you have plans to regularize these workers as well, as part of the immigration process.

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Well, it's true that we do have shortages in the skilled trades where a lot of these people are, and indeed in many other areas. But there are legitimate ways for people to get into this country, whether it's through the permanent stream or as temporary foreign workers.

We believe it's really important that people who choose to come into this country through legitimate ways not be penalized for doing so. If we were to grant an amnesty, for example, to undocumented workers who have come here illegally, that would be giving them an unfair advantage over those who have had the patience to apply to come here legally. If we were to do it once, that would encourage repeat behaviour and not compliance with the law.

We want people coming to this country who are going to respect our law, quite frankly. That's why we're going to give priority to those who come through legitimate means. It's only fair.

[Colleen Beaumier, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

I think that's a red herring; nevertheless....

Mr. Telegdi wanted to.... Go ahead.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Minister, unfortunately the people the economy is really short of rest within the unskilled worker backlog of 650,000, which does not have any of the folks such as electricians or what have you in it. That has given rise to undocumented workers.

I'd love to say it was a conscious decision by a Liberal minister to do that. What essentially the minister did was follow the bureaucracy. And Minister, your line about not dealing with the undocumented workers is the bureaucratic response that they have been giving us over the years.

The fact of the matter is there is a problem, and it is that the people the economy needs are not in the 650,000 backlog of unskilled workers. That's the problem, Minister, and I would hope you would recognize that the reason the number of undocumented workers has gone up is that there is no way for those people to get in, and that's what the undocumented workers in many ways represent.

[Colleen Beaumier, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

Mr. Chair, Mr. Karygiannis is going to take over.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Chair, I want to thank my colleague for allowing me the time.

Mr. Chair, I brought up some numbers—

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Do you have a response?