Thank you, Chair.
On behalf of the United Food and Commercial Workers of Canada, I would like to say thank you. I welcome the opportunity to appear before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.
My name is Santiago Escobar, national representative with UFCW and a front-line worker with migrant workers. UFCW Canada is the leading force for workers in the retail, food processing, hospitality and health care sectors and many other areas of the economy. We are one of Canada's largest unions, and we are proud and privileged to represent more than a quarter of a million hard-working people across Canada. Among our members, many are migrant workers who are working in Canada as permanent residents and as temporary foreign workers. I was a foreign worker myself and just got my PR.
Regarding best practices with migrant workers since 2002, our union, in collaboration with the Agriculture Workers Alliance—which is our banner, the UFCW banner for agricultural workers—has handled more than 60,000 cases, files, on a wide range of issues that touch on immigration, including human trafficking, workplace regulations, benefits and workers' compensation entitlements. We have about 13,000 migrant farm workers who are members of our association. All services are supplied in the language of the workers at no cost.
Last year, we held in-person consultations between migrant workers and senior federal representatives in Ontario, Quebec and B.C. as part of primary consultations with temporary foreign workers in agriculture. In March of this year, a consultation with senior federal representatives and migrant workers will take place in our support centre in Leamington, Ontario on how to implement open work permits for vulnerable migrant workers. We salute that the federal government has acknowledged that migrant workers are facing abuses. We think this tool will certainly help migrant workers to leave abusive employers.
It is also important to mention that, in August 2018, a group of migrant workers from Central America reached out to us, as they had been recruited from their farms in southern Ontario with false promises and were exploited for over a year and living in inhumane housing conditions. We have assisted these workers by providing a holistic approach to navigate the system, and we were able to get them temporary resident permits, known as TRPs, with considerations specific to victims of human trafficking, which has been a very long and complicated process. The Crown and the OPP are currently investigating this case.
We have recommendations to improve the well-being of temporary foreign workers. We believe that, today more than ever, with strong collaboration with the federal government, we can improve the well-being of migrant workers and prevent labour exploitation and human trafficking among the migrant communities.
Empowering migrant workers through location is a key part of the solution. We would like to suggest that the government partner with UFCW Canada and AWA to assist migrant worker communities in raising awareness about their rights and ways to maintain a safe and healthy workplace free of abuse. We are in a unique position, unlike any other organization across the country, to deliver on the government's mandate of making migrant workers aware of their rights and protecting them from abuse.
As a national organization with established support networks across various Canadian jurisdictions, we stand ready to engage the government on delivering rights awareness, health and safety training, and human trafficking provisions to migrant workers.
I have some notes regarding health and safety. Compared to other sectors of the economy, agriculture is one of the most hazardous and fatal industries in Canada. There are an average of 100 fatalities each year. The economics of agriculture-related injuries and fatalities are also significant. In 2004, agriculture-related injuries in Canada cost the economy $465 million.
Furthermore, Canada's agricultural workforce is largely composed of temporary migrant workers who, for a number of reasons, are especially precarious. As such, they are far less likely than permanent residents or Canadian citizens to exercise any health and safety or labour rights that may theoretically exist.
Our members have voiced that they don't have or receive health and safety training. Therefore, we claim that this training should be mandatory for all migrant workers in order to prevent accidents at work. Trained workers will be able to identify occupational hazards and teach other workers how to establish a safe workplace.
Such a model would also benefit employers by reducing costs associated with injuries, lost time claimed and fatalities at work. As occupational health and safety training and education have been proven effective, we believe that a “trusted employer” status is necessary. To incentivize employers' participation in the program, our union recommends that the federal government establish a “trusted employer” certification process, whereby employers who participate in health and safety training are formally recognized as trusted employers by the Canadian government. Benefits associated with the “trusted employer” designation could include relaxing certain temporary foreign worker program requirements, such as annual labour market impact assessments.
I'd also like to note some things about tackling human trafficking. UFCW Canada and AWA are implementing an advocacy campaign that aims to provide training to migrant workers coming under the temporary foreign worker program and the seasonal agricultural worker program. The tool is to prevent and stop labour exploitation and trafficking, as well as assist survivors with a holistic approach and facilitate access to legal remedies.
This concludes my remarks. I would like to thank you again for your work, and for the opportunity to be here today.