Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Dec. 11th, 2018

[La Trinidad Mina]

Thank you.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

You stopped in many different countries before finally arriving in Canada to settle. Why didn't you settle in one of those other countries, and why did you ultimately choose Canada?

[La Trinidad Mina]

It was easier. It was easy to get employment. The processing times are much faster. They definitely ask for the same number of documents, like passport and employment history and educational background and all those documents, but then to get permanent residency took a long time. As a young person at that time, it was not easy for me to navigate all the channels to get permanent residency.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Was it easier to become a permanent resident in Canada than in any of the other countries?

[La Trinidad Mina]

It was easier to get permanent residency in the United Arab Emirates than to get it here.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Okay, so why did you choose Canada instead of the United Arab Emirates?

[La Trinidad Mina]

I was thinking about the future of my children. In the United Arab Emirates, I wouldn't be able to raise them as.... My children wouldn't be able to play outside, for example. When they arrived at YVR in June, they went out of the airport and my son said, “Ma, the air is so clean.” He wouldn't have said that anywhere else in the world. Those small things made a difference, and I know that in Canada they will have a good future. They will be contributing citizens of their new country.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

You talk about support that's available to people being settled in Canada. Should they have more support than is available to Canadians who are already here?

[La Trinidad Mina]

Actually, I think it's a win-win for everybody if there is support for them. They are new to the country and they don't know how to navigate the school system. They don't know where everything is. They don't know where to start, and they don't know how to plan their careers in Canada. It's important that those channels are addressed so that they can be independent and contribute on their own.

What I'm hearing is that our budget for settlement workers in schools is being reduced or it's not there. It's hard to offer all these programs and then stop them and then do it again. It's quite hard.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

You've done some research on the Filipino community and I'm assuming the Filipino community, like many communities of new Canadians, is very interested in family reunification. Are you picking up any trends in that community as to whether or not they feel that removing the safe third country agreement and allowing more irregular migration might actually limit the ability for them to get their parents into the country? Do they see unfairness in the system? How is that dynamic playing out?

[La Trinidad Mina]

I haven't heard of that.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

That's good to hear. I'm glad to hear that's not the case.

Mr. Hussan, you said the temporary foreign worker program is inhumane. Do you have any qualifications you'd like to make to that statement?

[Syed Hussan]

I did not say it was inhumane. I said the treatment of workers in the system is inhumane. I'll give you one example. On average, our members work between 12 and 14 hours a day. They work six to seven days a week. They don't have breaks when they're working on farms. There are no toilet facilities available.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Okay, so we're talking about worker conditions.

We've actually also seen documentation that suggests the hourly wage paid by companies that employ temporary foreign workers, at least in Atlantic Canada, is actually 30¢ less than what is paid by the companies that don't. That's in the same industry.

You also said it doesn't have an impact on wages. Do you have a qualification you'd like to make to that statement, that immigrant workers don't put downward pressure on wages?

[Syed Hussan]

It's not the workers who put pressure on wages. It's the laws that reduce minimum wage. It's the fact that you've created a temporary system where people are tied to the employer and can get deported if they speak up. Have you ever—

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Sorry, sir, are you saying that we should expand the number of people who can come in as workers so that they just come as permanent residents, and that we eliminate the temporary foreign worker program?

[Syed Hussan]

I'm saying a few different things.

One, there should be streams for permanent immigration for low-wage and so-called low-skilled workers. I don't believe they're low-skilled; they're deemed low-skilled. Two, there should be an increase in minimum wage laws. Three, there should be anti-reprisal protections.

In the meantime, there should be open work permits. There should be permits for workers facing abuse. For example, in Atlantic Canada, what's happening—

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Yes, of course, but what countries are doing it better? You're pointing out a lot of flaws in our system, but I'm wondering what countries are doing this better.

[Syed Hussan]

It's important to understand that Canada has more responsibility because it's profited from the displacement of those people. When we talk about the conditions here being better, it's because they are worse there. We say we are here because you are there. This is what we have to deal with. You have to put this into the context of global migration patterns. We're not leaving our homes in search of better jobs because Canada is better. We're leaving our homes because corporations, banks and the global economic system have made it impossible for us to live with dignity in places we've called home.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Ms. Abuzgaya, you had mentioned—or perhaps I misheard—that Canada's immigration system perpetuates gender-based violence. I wonder if you'd like to qualify that statement and also answer this question: What country is doing it better?

[Yasmine Abuzgaya]

To qualify that statement would be quite extensive. I believe you can refer to our written submissions that we have provided to the committee, which go into far more detail in the exact manners in which the Canadian immigration system and policies perpetuate and act as a vehicle of gender-based violence.

As for what countries are doing it better, I would flip that statement on its head a little bit and think about what standard Canada wants to hold itself to. Are we only in the business of comparing ourselves to other western countries or do we have certain standards and values that we would like to uphold?

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I need to end it there.

Mr. Maguire, I can give you one minute, and then I want one minute for the committee.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thank you.

Mr. Hussan, the seasonal agricultural workers program, you mentioned, has been in place for 50 years. It's one of the solutions of the four that you had. Of course the seasonal agricultural workers are not part of the migrant stream. They come in for eight months and they go home again.

Can you elaborate on whether you're in favour of that program, given that these people are voluntarily coming into the country? They're working the hours they want to work. They have housing and food provided, those sorts of things. Can you elaborate on that for me?

[Syed Hussan]

We have members who've been coming into the seasonal agriculture program for 35-plus years. They've come every year for 35 years. They are not temporary workers. They've spent more than the majority of their lives here. They want to be here with their families. At the least, they want to be able to change bad jobs. At the least, they want their families to be able to visit with them. At the least, they want to be able to not actually live in employer-provided housing, which is completely inhumane, by and large.

Not just that, but they have no say in the writing of the contracts that are state to state. Most agricultural workers across the different provinces are exempt from labour protections: minimum wage, overtime pay and ability to unionize. To call this a choice is a complete misrepresentation of what is actually happening, which is maximum exploitation of people.

What we are calling for is that those people should be able to come here with permanent resident status. Those who are here already should be given permanent resident status. They deserve that and much more.

As one example, just in Ontario, agricultural workers paid over $385 million into EI and did not take a cent back last year. They are actually paying into the system. Canada needs to actually compensate people by giving them permanent residency. That is the absolute minimum that can be done—

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Because we're running out of time, I'd like to interrupt to say I agree that there is quite a difference between the seasonal agricultural workers and the temporary foreign workers you were talking about.