Evidence of meeting #4 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was karygiannis.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
If you don't have it, I.... We all did. It was sent to us.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Chair, could the parliamentary secretary read to us the press release that he was referring to?
Could you please read that into the Hansard, because some of us--
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
You know what? We don't have unanimous consent to debate this one way or the other.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
But before we have unanimous consent or not, I'd like--
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
No. So we have two minutes left, and I guess the next question is whether there is unanimous consent that he can read this press release.
Conservative
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
iWorkers, the Independent Workers Association-Homeworkers Section, has welcomed the start of deliberation on changes to the Temporary Foreign Workers Program....
The changes, put forward by NDP MP Olivia Chow, will among other things ensure a fair immigration process to workers seeking permanent residence under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). An amendment to section 38(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) would include members of the Live-in Caregivers Class on the list of foreign nationals exempted from the “excessive demand” ground of inadmissibility.
The proposed amendment is known as the Juana Tejada Law after the case of a live-in caregiver who came to Canada after passing a rigorous medical exam but was refused permanent residence and ordered deported after contracting a serious illness. Juana Tejada developed colon cancer and was denied twice by Canadian immigration authorities before finally being allowed to stay permanently following a vigorous public campaign on her behalf.
The proposed amendment would recognize that, if a caregiver has done her work and paid her taxes, she should be entitled to permanent resident status under the Live-in Caregiver Class after at least two years of working here, no matter what her medical condition is. The current immigration laws must be changed so that they do not disqualify hardworking caregivers from becoming permanent residents only because they develop a medical condition that is clearly beyond her, or anyone's, control.
Other proposed changes include:
Make LCP participants eligible for the Interim Federal Health program, to ensure that they receive adequate health coverage from the day they arrive in Canada to work, until the day they are granted permanent residence, with no gaps in coverage at any time. Currently, LCP participants who are in the process of applying for permanent residence are denied extensions to their health coverage in Ontario. This lack of coverage could last for many months, notwithstanding the fact that they continue to be legally working in Canada, and continue to pay their taxes.
Significantly reduce current processing times for work permits for new entrants to the LCP, and for permanent residence to those who are eligible, including their family members. Canadian families cannot continue to wait the 12-18 months that it takes to process work permits at the Canadian Embassy in the Philippines, where most caregivers originate. Through the embassy in India, the wait is even longer, about 30 months. Similarly, LCP participants who are eligible to apply for permanent residence should not be forced to be apart from their families for an additional 15-22 months that it takes for the Canadian Embassy in the Philippines to grant visas to overseas family members. In all, caregivers and their families could be forced apart for at least four years due to processing delays. Continuing to work under current processing times can be devastating to caregivers and their families, and goes against IRPA's objective of reuniting families in Canada.
Review how reasonable wages and benefits are determined for LCP participants. Of all temporary foreign workers under the TFWP, only the wages of live-in caregivers are set according to the prevailing minimum wage amounts in each province. These workers provide a significant benefit to Canadians who are in need of child care, elder care, and care for disabled family members. It is grossly unfair and exploitative that the value of these workers' services is set against minimum wage levels.
The Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration is scheduled to consider the changes from now until March 12.
iWorkers is a collaborative effort of the United Steelworkers union (USW) and community-based Migrante Ontario.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
This motion will be dealt with first on Thursday, followed by a study of the undocumented and temporary foreign workers.
This meeting is adjourned until Thursday.