Evidence of meeting #146 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was quebec.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:20 p.m.
Legal Counsel, Carpenters' District Council of Ontario
I'm telling you, we will and we try, but the ability to get construction workers here and keep them here on a permanent basis is somewhat limited.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Thanks to my colleague.
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Just to follow up on that, I would look at your mentioning that permanent residency is the key to the whole process.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
They want to come here and instead of being temporary workers.... They come out of the temporary foreign worker program, but they're not temporary. They want to be permanent.
5:25 p.m.
Legal Counsel, Carpenters' District Council of Ontario
I don't think we have a problem having people come to Canada as temporary workers if they see a pathway to permanent residency. The problem we have in Canada is that we're competing with other places too. The European Union has labour mobility and people can go from eastern Europe to work in Germany, and so forth. Australia has been heavily recruiting skilled tradespeople as well—
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Sorry, just because of time limitations here....
Ms. Proulx, I wonder if you could elaborate on those last three points you had.
5:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Manufacturiers et Exportateurs du Québec
I'll just do it in French for the last two or the last three that were left.
We talked about the labour market impact study and the need to update it. That process was put in place to protect Canadian workers. Of course, they have to be protected, but in a full employment context. Consequently that process needs to be reviewed to facilitate the entry of temporary foreign workers.
The third point is the visa for low-wage workers. Under the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, these people are given a one-year visa. To follow up on the previous question, those workers should be given 24- to 36-month visas, for three reasons: to allow workers to get to know the Quebec labour market; to prevent employers from having to reapply every year and thus risk losing workers in whom they have invested; and to allow interested and interesting workers to avail themselves of the Quebec mechanism for permanent immigration, which gives employers the possibility of having quicker access to qualified and interested candidates.
The fourth point is to accelerate the processing of applications under the TFWP. Current processing times are from 6 to 18 months, which is much too long when we must meet seasonal requirements or short-term or urgent needs.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Can I just follow up on that, Mr. Chair?
I would ask you to send us your presentation today, because I think there are some good points there as well, if you could make that available to our clerk for our committee.
5:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Manufacturiers et Exportateurs du Québec
Yes, of course.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
Thank you.
Next, we have Ms. Kwan for seven minutes, and that will probably be the end of our meeting.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for their presentations.
I'm going to start with Mr. Escobar.
In your recommendations and, I think, in your particular example where UFCW has been successful in bringing in workers, particularly in the meat industry.... Would that be a case example of what the Canadian government can do in partnering with labour unions such as yours to bring in workers in that context, to meet the needs of the industry and, at the same time, ensure that we have the right workers in place and fill the labour skills shortage?
5:25 p.m.
National Representative, United Food and Commercial Workers Union Canada
Yes, we think that there could be an alternative to the current system that is in place. We all agree that it needs to be improved. We have seen that if workers are able to come to Canada to settle and, on top of that, belong to a union and can be assured that their workers' rights and entitlements will be respected.... I think this is a good opportunity and the path to follow. We think that should be considered in the new program.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you.
Mr. Lewis, in your answer to my colleague here with respect to the pathway to permanence.... That is the crux of the issue, isn't it? People are uprooting themselves to come only for a temporary period. They don't know what that's going to look like, and then they're in flux. In terms of the pathway to permanence, would you agree with the perspective that when we have people come to Canada, we should provide them with landed status, with the pathway to permanence, on arrival?
5:25 p.m.
Legal Counsel, Carpenters' District Council of Ontario
Obviously, for the needs of our industry, we would like them to become permanent. If they can come from abroad as permanent residents to the country, that's wonderful. However, we're not necessarily asking for that. I would quite endorse the comments of the last speaker of the last session. If people come on a temporary basis and prove their ability to be employed, that would suit our industry and the workers who are on temporary foreign work permits who are our members. They want to commit to Canada, and they're willing to show Canada that they can work hard, that they can keep themselves and that they can integrate. They just want to know that they have a realistic chance before they spend two years of sweat equity—it's hard, working in the construction industry—before they come.
If we could have an immigration system that recognizes apprenticeship and work qualifications, giving equal measure to them compared to academic qualifications, so that the people could come as permanent residents from the beginning, that would be wonderful for our industry, too.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you.
Mr. Escobar, you touched on the farm workers, in terms of the challenges some of the workers face. In fact, right now I have a giant stack of cases of farm workers who are being abused, for lack of a more descriptive word, in their situations.
In terms of specific recommendations on ensuring that people are advised of their rights so that their rights will be respected, would you say that it is the government's responsibility to ensure that education is being provided? How do we actually realize that? What are your suggestions?
5:30 p.m.
National Representative, United Food and Commercial Workers Union Canada
We think that the government should provide information, and also the sending countries, but we have been doing this for the last two decades. We have 13,000 migrant farm workers who are part of our association, and we learn from them. We have learned that they don't have any training, nothing regarding health and safety, nothing about labour rights.
We claim that these workers are the most vulnerable workers in Canada. Therefore, if we are able to implement this partnership with the government, we will be more than happy to reach out to all our members through our worker support centres across Canada. In partnership with the government, that would be the right thing to do.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Mr. Escobar, would UFCW also support the concept of recognizing workers and providing them with landed status on arrival?
5:30 p.m.
National Representative, United Food and Commercial Workers Union Canada
Totally, yes, we support that. We think that's part of the solution. Also, if you are a new immigrant, a newcomer, we claim as a union that in order to protect and exercise your labour rights and your human rights, it's important that you bring in the union and be part of a union.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
The government actually just recently made an announcement with regard to caregivers. This is something the community has been calling for, for a long time. Although they have not brought in landed status on arrival for caregivers, they have proposed a pre-vetting process that would be done before the caregivers come to Canada. Through that process, it would be determined that they would be eligible for permanent resident status, and then after they come here, they have to work for two years before they get their landed status.
In this context, if the kind of pilot program that's being applied for the caregivers were applied here, would you support it? It's to do the pre-vetting and approve people before they come, so that after they've come and fulfilled their work requirements, they would actually get landed status—that is, short of landed status on arrival.
5:30 p.m.
Legal Counsel, Carpenters' District Council of Ontario
That would be wonderful for us and for our employers.
5:30 p.m.
National Representative, United Food and Commercial Workers Union Canada
Yes, that would be great.
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
I think we've come to the end of our agenda.
I apologize to the witnesses. We didn't get as much time with all of you as we would have liked, but we got your points. If you have anything you would like to submit to the committee, we're happy to receive it as well, any additional material from your organizations or you personally.
Thank you very much.
The meeting is adjourned.
