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.
4:50 p.m.
Manager, Community Development and Special Projects, The Neighbourhood Organization
Definitely, yes.
Thank you.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Okay, so we have two minutes left for The Neighbourhood Organization.
Ms. Rajasekar, you can continue for the next two minutes.
4:50 p.m.
Manager, Newcomer Support Services, The Neighbourhood Organization
Thank you.
Due to COVID-19, employees are working for long hours. Kids are off from school, thus the volume of work has increased and, in some cases, doubled. Many migrant caregivers are confined to employers' homes and have less time to study for the test. As a result, they are having difficulty preparing for and passing the language test. In this case, caregivers have been known to take the English language test as many as five to ten times, which is not only inconvenient but also costly.
We highly recommend that the federal government ease barriers to permanent resident status, eliminating the English language test and removing the requirement of one year of Canadian post-secondary education. Furthermore, we would like to endorse the Migrant Right Networks recommendations in “Behind Closed Doors: Exposing Migrant Care Worker Exploitation During COVID-19”. This is the modified interim program they recommend.
It should also reduce the work experience requirement to 12 months and allow for care work in either child care or high medical needs streams to count towards the one year requirement; remove the requirement for one year of Canadian post-secondary education; and remove the English language test prior to permanent residency. Starting in 2014, the new pathways program mandated that caregivers meet a higher official language proficiency benchmark to qualify for permanent immigration to Canada.
We also recommend the implementation of effective measures to reduce processing times for applications for caregivers, family reunifications and refugee eligibility assessments for citizenship. Data shows applications were moving slowly even before COVID-19 lockdowns reduced the immigration department's processing capacity last year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRCC processing time has slowed to a concerning level. Most immigrant caregivers are concerned with their status, especially those with implied status. According to a recent article in the Toronto Star:
...there's a backlog of at least 9,100 applications for permanent residence. That matches the kind of numbers that government saw back in 2017, when processing time was known to be as long as five years.
Many workers who applied in 2020 are still waiting for notifications that their family application is completed. Applications could be returned for minor non-compliance, and clear instructions to officers to exercise flexible accommodation and process applications should be issued; otherwise, applications would be returned after many months, and caregivers who otherwise would benefit from implied status would become out of status.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
I'm sorry for interrupting, Ms. Rajasekar. Your time is up. You'll get an opportunity to talk further when we come to the round of questioning.
Now we will go to Universities Canada, and Mr. Paul Davidson, president of Universities Canada.
You will have five minutes for your opening remarks.
4:55 p.m.
Paul Davidson President, Universities Canada
Good afternoon, Madam Chair. Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before the committee today.
With me is Wendy Therrien, who leads our public policy and public affairs work.
On behalf of Universities Canada and our members, thank you for the invitation to speak with you today, and thank you for the extraordinary work that all parliamentarians continue to do during this challenging time.
I had the pleasure of appearing before this group just last November to discuss international students. As you may recall, Universities Canada represents all 96 universities across the country. Taken together, Canada’s universities are a $38-billion enterprise. Universities employ 310,000 people and are often the largest employer in their community. They are social and economic anchors during these tumultuous times.
Canada’s universities are an integral part of the team Canada approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, from mitigating risk to finding a vaccine and accelerating Canada’s economic and social recovery.
Universities appreciate the challenge now facing Canadians: balancing the optimism of the vaccine and restarting the Canadian economy while continuing the health measures necessary to keep COVID-19 at bay.
It's the role of attracting talent to drive economic recovery that I want to discuss with you today. Today’s global competition for talent is the 21st century gold rush. In a world economy increasingly powered by ideas, Canada is in an enviable position, but it's a position that will be challenged. We are a country of open communities. We have an accessible, world-class, bilingual post-secondary education system. We have taken steps like the temporary foreign worker program to make coming to Canada attractive to highly skilled individuals.
You might have heard the Governor of the Bank of Canada, Tiff Macklem, highlight in a speech recently that a well-educated and diverse workforce will be our greatest asset in driving Canada’s prosperity.
Since we last spoke in November, there have been two significant developments in ongoing global competition for high-skilled talent. First, President Biden is putting forward a strategy to modernize the U.S. immigration system. It includes boosting funding to improve visa processing and making it easier for STEM graduates to work in the United States. It also streamlines visa applications for highly skilled workers and their families.
Second, the United Kingdom formally exited the European Union, and the U.K. government then launched an aggressive campaign to attract the world’s brightest minds to study and do research at British universities. The campaign includes new multi-year work permits for international students to work in the U.K. after graduation.
It's clear that the global competition for talent remains fierce. While our international brand remains strong, Canada will have to work even harder to secure the world’s brightest minds.
Since the onset of the pandemic, Canada’s universities have been working closely with both the federal government and provincial counterparts on a central pillar of talent attraction: the safe return of over 200,000 international students studying at universities each year.Those students contribute over $22 billion to the Canadian economy and support 218,000 jobs. Even more important for the purposes of this committee is the fundamental role international students play in building Canada’s highly skilled talent pipeline.
While many international students have spent the last year learning online, they are all ultimately seeking a Canadian experience. In the coming weeks, the next cohort of international students will be deciding whether to accept admissions offers from universities in Canada or from other competitor countries. Visa processing times and travel restrictions will be important factors in their decision-making. It's critical that Canada conveys our openness to their eventual, safe arrival.
The question of talent attraction extends beyond international students. Government measures such as the temporary foreign worker program and the international mobility program are essential to talent attraction. Universities use these programs to attract the best and brightest faculty and researchers to Canada, improving the learning experiences for Canadian students while also strengthening Canada’s innovation ecosystem.
For example, these programs helped Dalhousie University recruit two scientists as research chairs to work with Dr. Jeff Dahn, the industrial research chair for Tesla at Dalhousie. For the past five years, Dr. Dahn’s group has been filing patents on battery technology for Tesla that could lead to a new battery cell enabling a million miles in a battery pack. It's projects such as this one that demonstrate why the temporary foreign worker program is so critical and why strategic investments to boost Canada’s visa processing capacity is a cost-effective solution to build on the success of these programs and ensure that Canada is best positioned to drive the economic recovery from COVID-19.
We appreciate the work by all members of this committee to help Canada recover from COVID-19. We look forward to partnering to build a stronger Canada.
5 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Thank you, Mr. Davidson.
Now we will move to questions, starting with Mr. Hallan for six minutes.
5 p.m.
Conservative
Jasraj Singh Hallan Conservative Calgary Forest Lawn, AB
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all of the witnesses for being here today and for sharing and being a part of this intervention. I'd just like to say that it's very encouraging to hear things, especially from Jennifer, about how we need to be very compassionate. We need to help those people who are already here. I've talked about this a few times in the committee as well.
I think Mr. Hussan would agree as well that for the people who are already here, who are the low-hanging fruit, it would make sense to help find them an easier pathway to PR. After all, they are also 50% processed, so it would be a lot easier to get them into PR.
Mr. Hussan, would you agree? For the people you're dealing with, is this something that they have an appetite for? As well, how do you see that pathway to PR for the low-wage workers?
5 p.m.
Executive Director, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
You know, there is a pathway for care workers, and as you just heard, it's not a pathway; it's a minefield. We don't need pathways. We need immediate access to permanent residency. Every year, tens of thousands of people come to the country with permanent residency and others are put on temporary programs. Why the separation?
Just 20 years ago, there were 60,000 temporary work permits in Canada. Since then, there's been a 600% increase to over 400,000 today. There are 1.6 million people in the country, or one in 23 people, who are non-permanent residents. That's one in 23 people. In the communities that many of you are in, that percentage is much higher. That means that this many people don't have access to labour rights, health care, education and other protections and can't protect themselves.
We believe that everyone who is in the country should get permanent resident status immediately and that all low-wage workers in the future should be able to come to the country with permanent resident status on arrival. The specifics of—
5:05 p.m.
The Clerk
Madam Chair, interpretation advises that the issue has to do with the device. So the usage of the device is not the issue. It's the device itself that's inadequate for our purposes, I'm afraid.
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
Okay. Let me go back to the previous headphones I was using.
My apologies again. Could you let me know if this is better or more appropriate?
5:05 p.m.
Bloc
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Okay. Thank you.
Mr. Hussan, you can continue. I will start the clock again.
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
All I want to say is that, absolutely, we support full and permanent immigration status for all migrant and undocumented people in the country right now.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Jasraj Singh Hallan Conservative Calgary Forest Lawn, AB
Mr. Hussan, thank you for that.
This question is for the combination of Mr. Hussan, Maria and Jennifer.
We heard a bit about the violations and some of the things that are going on, not just for these workers who are coming here. Can you talk about some of the hardships that some of these temporary foreign workers are facing, just one example, and what a solution could be for those people?
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
Maria, do you want to start?
5:05 p.m.
Manager, Community Development and Special Projects, The Neighbourhood Organization
I can start.
I think the solution really is to address the root cause. These people are suffering and experiencing so many challenges because of the precariousness of their work and because of the temporary nature of their immigration status in Canada.
The solution would be to give them permanent residency upon arrival. Also, as has been mentioned repeatedly, all those people who are here should be given permanent residency status, especially those who have been affected by the changes in 2009 to Canada's caregiver program. Many were left out because of the higher criteria or eligibility for language and education. Many of them actually are the most affected, because now they are not qualified for PR; they are the ones who kept renewing the work permit and they are the ones who need to get an LMIA. They are the ones who experience these additional barriers to get through. Specifically, COVID-19 makes it even more difficult.
April 12th, 2021 / 5:10 p.m.
Executive Director, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
Maybe I'll just give you two examples.
First, we did a survey of our membership: care workers, farm workers, international students and work permit holders. On average, we found that they were having $10,000 every year stolen in wages. That is to say, they were working overtime but were not being paid for it or were working longer hours that weren't being acknowledged, across the board, across the membership, across the country.
That's because, as I mentioned earlier, if you put yourself in someone's shoes, you can't speak up. You can't assert the rights you have if you don't have citizenship. That's it. We have a multi-tiered system.
There are many other examples that we're happy to provide in writing.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Jasraj Singh Hallan Conservative Calgary Forest Lawn, AB
Thank you for that.
I want to focus a little bit on the caregivers program.
There's an advocacy group that I talked to a few weeks ago. They were saying that the program is basically non-existent for them. We have a couple of cases, even in my own office, in which the applications are sitting in Edmonton and are not being touched at all. This is causing an immense amount of hardship on families and people who are in need of these caregivers.
On top of all that, the processing time is 12 months, but some of these applications aren't even opened yet. When does that period of 12 months truly start? We don't have any clarification on that.
Can you all please speak a little bit about your thoughts on this current caregiver pilot program and what things you're seeing that are wrong with it and what can be done to help fix it?
5:10 p.m.
Executive Director, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
Our report “Behind Closed Doors” was the one referred to, in which we document that, in fact—
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
I'm sorry for interrupting.
Mr. Hallan, your time is up.
We will now move on to Mr. Dhaliwal, who will have six minutes for his round of questioning.
