The caregiver program is specifically unique because much of the work is happening in the home. The vulnerabilities for abuse and trafficking are there for many temporary foreign workers, who are dependent on their employer, especially if they have a closed permit.
My primary recommendation is to consider removing the closed permit. Those workers who have the freedom to seek employers who treat them respectfully, because we are working with caregivers who do have good employers, find they're able to finish the program and are able to apply for permanent residence. Those who are working on a closed permit are often in a bind. They're afraid to speak out against their employer because the employer can let them go. Under the current system, there is often up to a four-month wait period while they seek a new employer. The new employer submits an LMIA, and then they have to submit a renewal on their work permit. During that four months, there's incredible economic hardship, and people are very vulnerable for trafficking. There's also the risk of speaking out against abuse because they worry about losing their status in Canada, especially as workers are accruing hours so that they can apply for permanent residence. Their aim is to reunify with their family members. Even though they may have been working in Canada for even a year and a half, that almost puts more pressure on them to keep quiet in cases of abuse, or even when people are just not getting along.
I spoke with a caregiver just two weeks ago, and the primary insult she experienced was around food. The employer did not want the caregiver to eat any of the food in the home. Sometimes this worked out. The caregiver could bring food from home. Other times she had to go the whole day without eating because she was not permitted to eat the food, even though she was providing food for the children she was taking care of. This might seem like a minor offence on the range of abusive acts, all the way to physical and sexual assault on the other end; however, it gives the nature of the kind of constraints people feel, and how they stay with an employer who may not be treating them with dignity. They're worried about losing their work permit and not accruing hours, so my primary recommendation—