Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 29th, 2017

[Donald Arseneault]

There's a reason why you didn't win a seat in Atlantic Canada.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Well, I would argue that a lot of people who are—

[Donald Arseneault]

Just show a little more respect for our province.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

You show some respect for energy workers and people who have skills in that labour. That is one of the most arrogant comments that I have heard. I hope that people who are out of work in this skill set hear the arrogance in that comment. To say that somehow this is about seeking power, or winning or losing, is one of the most ridiculous things I've heard.

I think that you need to respect these workers.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Ms. Rempel.

[Donald Arseneault]

There's a famous person who said that Atlantic Canada was defeatist.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Okay.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Was that you?

[Donald Arseneault]

That was your former boss.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Well what about these workers?

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

I think we should return to the topic at hand.

Mr. Tilson, you have a minute and 20 seconds.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Mr. Arseneault, you may have heard that I graduated from the University of New Brunswick. It's a great university. However, I do recall that a number of graduates couldn't find jobs, so they left. They moved to, as you call it, Upper Canada. At least back then it was called Upper Canada.

I have a young lady who works in my office who is a recent graduate from the University of New Brunswick. She couldn't get a job there, so she moved to Ontario and has a job in my office. She's very good, I might tell you.

My question is, if there are no jobs—

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thirty seconds.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

If there are no jobs, where are we going to put new immigrants? How are you working to retain graduates from your post-secondary institutions?

[Donald Arseneault]

I would say there are jobs, but do I have a job for—?

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

There are no jobs, sir. I'm telling you—

[Donald Arseneault]

Let's be realistic, if you have a Ph.D. in math, chances are there are not a thousand jobs available in New Brunswick.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

I'm talking about Bachelor of Arts. I'm talking about business administration, about engineering.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Ms. Kwan, seven minutes, please.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I thank all the witnesses for taking time to present to us and some of the recommendations you've suggested. That was very helpful.

I'd like to explore a couple of things. One, of course, is the immigration levels numbers. I think I heard that the provinces are on track with respect to the numbers that you're hoping to achieve.

I'm wondering whether those numbers are sufficient. In other words, could those numbers be increased, and would that be useful and helpful in terms of the goals you're trying to achieve?

I will go to both provinces for a comment.

[Charles Ayles]

That's a good question because levels planning is something that all of the provinces do from an FPT perspective with IRCC. It's a complicated process in the sense that you are trying to forecast long term. We in New Brunswick use the Stokes forecast model to do this long-term planning.

The pilot gave us the numbers that we would need to fill our job market needs for the next couple of years, the next three years. The hope is that this will stimulate the economy and grow to having more jobs. We'll need more spots, but we need to evaluate it, and that's why the pilot is for three years. We can evaluate to see if we push the limit to get those 2,000, and we get there, then we know we need more. We've negotiated with IRCC so that, if we need more, there is a willingness to give us more in order to help us meet those job market needs.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Stewart.

[Neil Stewart, Deputy Minister, Workforce and Advanced Learning, Government of Prince Edward Island]

I will echo those comments to a certain degree. The pilot is for the region, but there is a chance for allocation to move from one province to the other if one province doesn't use its full allocation. I would say that Prince Edward Island is in the same boat of having our allocation level currently.... If we can retain all those immigrants to P.E.I..... Our economy is growing well now, but we want to see our retention levels before we seek higher levels.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

One of the issues that we all face across the country is the aging population happening everywhere and most particularly in the Atlantic provinces. You are impacted in a significant way and are a little bit ahead of the curve in that way.

I constantly think about the immigration levels numbers and whether or not we should be increasing them because we need to fill that gap, and that's the reality. We don't want to wait until we are in a dire situation before we say we should increase the immigration levels numbers.

Interestingly, the former minister's expert panel recommended immigration levels numbers go up to 450,000, but we're still at 300,000. I actually think we should increase that number. I'd love to hear from you. If you need those numbers increased, let us know because we do need to look at that as well.

Sustainable jobs are really one of the key issues in terms of retention, not only for immigrants to stay in your provinces but also for young people as well. By the way, my former constituency assistant in Vancouver when I was the MLA there came from the Atlantic provinces, and you'll be very happy to know she moved back, to my loss.

[Donald Arseneault]

Did she get a job?