Evidence of meeting #22 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was caregivers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
I can provide that in writing. Thank you.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Yes, that would be really good.
We will move on to Ms. Kwan before we end this panel. This will be the last round of questioning.
Ms. Kwan, you will have six minutes for your round of questioning.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you to all of the witnesses for their presentations.
I'll go first to Mr. Hussan.
Earlier in the pandemic, your organization issued a report called “Unheeded Warnings - COVID-19 & Migrant Workers in Canada.” In that document, you highlighted the significant problems, the suffering and abuses, that workers had been subjected in Canada, not just during the COVID period but throughout this entire time.
My first question to you is the following. Has the government addressed any of those concerns that you highlighted in the report? Even in the face of the report, you're still recommending that the government bring forward an immigration program that recognizes all these workers and provides status to them, and also that future workers who come to Canada would have landed status on arrival.
Can you just elaborate on what the government really needs to do at this time?
5:25 p.m.
Executive Director, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
A report was issued in June 2020 looking at the conditions during March, April and May. It followed the work we had done previously. I can tell you that a year later we are in not the same crisis but a much deeper crisis. The housing conditions are bad, if not worse. The labour conditions are the same. The overall experience of migrant workers....
We are now in a third wave. People keep losing work, and people keep facing further exploitation. Either there are no vaccines or if there are vaccines, it's coercive. Last year when I was at committee, I called it “a human rights catastrophe”. We had migrant and undocumented people in conditions of great suffering.
Now I'm at a loss for an adjective. The federal government has made minor reforms. Twenty-seven thousand people were given permanent resident status, but only if they had high-wage work experience, which doesn't exist during COVID for most people.
The low-wage workers are the essential workers. They are the construction workers, the cleaners, the health care workers, the delivery workers, the retail workers and the workers in grocery stores. Those are the people we rely on. Those are the people we call “essential”, but those are the people we deny permanent residency in this country.
It's a very simple solution. We need to turn away and transform the immigration system away from one where there is temporariness and some undocumented persons. I'm saying have no work permits but just permanent residency for everyone. There is no other way to get any other rights in this country. That's just it. It's not about whether you stay or go; it's about whether you can access any basic rights.
Thank you.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you.
My next question is for our representatives from TNO with respect to the caregivers.
You highlighted a litany of problems with the program, the new pilot, and with how workers, caregivers, are really unable to get through the system, particularly with the multiple barriers around language and language testing and the education requirements. I wonder if you can elaborate on that component and on what the government should do with respect to those kinds of criteria faced by caregivers.
5:25 p.m.
Manager, Community Development and Special Projects, The Neighbourhood Organization
I can talk about that.
I think all we have to apply here is the principle of “good enough to work” and “good enough to stay”. These workers are able to provide care and work. These requirements are additional layers of barriers that are not necessary and are definitely not connected to their ability to provide work. I think they should be eliminated.
I mentioned earlier that we've been working with a lot of caregivers who were left out and excluded from the new interim pathway that was introduced in 2018. Many of them now—and even because of the pandemic—have been experiencing multiple barriers and challenges. Some of them have lost their status.
We have this four-page brief, and we weren't able to finish everything we wanted to say. We can submit it so that you can refer to it for the report. We would like the federal government to provide open work permits and permanent residency to those people, as well as to those who have become undocumented as a result of those changes.
Moving forward, we are also calling for permanent residency for future workers upon their arrival as well as for those who are already here.
Again, we will share our submission with all of you.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you.
We learned that IRCC hasn't really begun tackling the new application processing for caregivers. Prior to COVID, it took about 39 days for the government to process the applications. Now that number has jumped up to 344 days.
Are you seeing that on the ground in terms of the delay in processing applications? Also, as a result of COVID and the impact of COVID, many of the workers are not able to count that lost time towards their two-year work requirement. As a result, some of the children are aging out.
What are your recommendations for addressing those concerns?
5:30 p.m.
Manager, Community Development and Special Projects, The Neighbourhood Organization
As we mentioned, we would like to recommend for the children who are now too old to qualify that the regulation 117(9) pilot be extended and enhanced to ensure that those families are able to reunite in Canada and that there be no absolute barrier in place. Also, cases of gross misrepresentation should also be dealt with through existing—
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
I'm sorry for interrupting, Ms. Panlaqui. The time is up.
To all of the witnesses, if there is anything you have not been able to discuss today that you would like to bring to the attention of the committee, you can send the written submissions, and we will take them into consideration while we are in the process of drafting the report.
With this, our panel for today comes to end. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our witnesses for appearing before the committee and providing important input as we continue this study. Sorry for the IT issues we had for interpretation. We will make sure that we take due notice of those for our next meeting.
With that, the meeting is adjourned.