Thank you, Kathleen.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I am Daniel Vielfaure, the DCEO of Bonduelle Group and CEO of Bonduelle Americas. Bonduelle is a global food company specializing in frozen and canned vegetables. Here in Canada, Bonduelle is responsible for mostly all of private-label canned and frozen vegetables found in your grocery stores, in addition to such brands as Bonduelle, Arctic Gardens, Del Monte and Green Giant.
Bonduelle is one of Canada's largest food manufacturers, employing almost 2,000 people at eight facilities—four in Quebec, three in Ontario and one in Alberta. Bonduelle is also a Canadian success story of a French privately owned company that chose to invest in Canada and to use Canada as its North American and South American headquarters.
As Kathleen said, labour is the biggest challenge this sector is facing. It is the biggest challenge our company is facing. Without workers, Canada's food plants cannot operate. Without workers, companies like Bonduelle will stop investing in this country. At Bonduelle our business is seasonal. Corn, peas and beans are harvested just once a year. If Bonduelle does not have workers available at harvest time, we cannot package these products. That means there will be no Canadian corn, peas and beans in the grocery stores for the rest of the year. It is that simple.
Temporary foreign workers are critical to Bonduelle's business, but we are often criticized for hiring them. I would like to address some of that criticism head-on.
First, at Bonduelle we hire temporary foreign workers because we need to. Like many food processors, Bonduelle operates in largely rural areas—areas that have seen depopulation over the past decade; areas that no longer have a labour base to support our sector.
Second, hiring temporary foreign workers does not save Bonduelle money. Hiring temporary foreign workers costs Bonduelle about 30% more than hiring Canadians.
Third, we treat our temporary foreign workers as we do any of our workers at Bonduelle. Temporary foreign workers are part of our employee family and part of our community. Many of these workers return to their jobs at Bonduelle every year. Temporary foreign workers are eligible for all of our employee programs and supports. In Bonduelle's unionized plants, temporary foreign workers are part of the union.
Despite the importance of these workers, the temporary foreign worker program seems designed to make their employment in Canada as difficult as possible. Even in normal years the TFW program is overly complex. Approval times are lengthy and do not align with our needs. Limits are imposed on the number of workers we can bring in. In the case of returning workers, the process is highly repetitive. Wages are also an issue, with ESDC often requiring wages that are in excess of industry standards.