Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 12th, 2021

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Madam Chair, as you and other committee members know, students across the country who have run into difficulties because of the pandemic have greatly benefited from the changes that the government made for their education plans to continue with minimal disruption.

The government has also made a tremendous amount of change and adjustment for international students to amend their study permits so they can complete their work placements for their degrees. It has also brought in measures to increase access to postgraduate work permit programs for those that have expired because of the pandemic.

We all know that students play a key role when it comes to fulfilling our needs for the work force. There are always more methods by which to innovate. I would like to hear from the witnesses today where they see room for improvements to the role that international students can play during their time in Canada.

[Syed Hussan]

Perhaps I'll start with one key thing. We just saw Stats Canada release its report showing that international students had their tuition raised 7.1% during COVID-19, while regular domestic students had their tuition raised by 1.6%. At a time when people were struggling and people around the world were losing work, universities and colleges chose to actually extract more money from these people who were struggling.

We also know that this meant that people were working but couldn't get access to most of the income assistance programs. For example, the CESB was not available, and the CRB was very difficult to access.

It was not just that. Because these students have no other choice but to work, they're working in warehouses, they're working as food delivery workers and are facing the exact same labour exploitation that other migrants are. Absolutely, I think we need a single-tier immigration system. That is the number one—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting. I've stopped the clock.

Madam Panlaqui, could you please mute yourself?

Thank you.

Please resume.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Madam Chair, I do not agree with the witness, Mr. Hussan, on this one. In fact, our government has done great work when it comes to students. We gave them an equal opportunity to that of any other Canadian when the CERB was first given.

[Syed Hussan]

The CESB is not available, sir; it's very clear. We have 24,000 international student members whom we just served during COVID-19.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

I tell you, I don't have to get into this—

[Syed Hussan]

We can provide you the evidence.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Can I have one person speak at a time, please?

Mr. Dhaliwal, please resume.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Thank you.

We can't agree with him. I'm going to move on to my next question, Madam Chair.

We have already heard during this committee meeting, even from Mr. Syed Hussan, who mentioned the exploitation of workers, which has been an issue around the Lower Mainland in British Columbia as well, and it concerns me and many of us [Technical difficulty—Editor] in appreciation about addressing....

When it comes to labour shortages, it's important to show that the foreign workers are not going through this possible abuse or exploitation. Finding faster and more certain ways to PR status for the temporary workers is good. In fact, this government brought in 27,232 applications with the lowest mark ever—the 75 score.

These are the types of steps government is taking. Are there any other special areas that the witnesses would recommend that government focus on to help temporary workers to PR status?

Anyone...?

[Paul Davidson]

Mr. Dhaliwal, I'll jump in.

I want to thank you for acknowledging, and let me also acknowledge, some extraordinary work done by the public service over the last year in being innovative, adaptive and flexible in addressing the needs of international students. I would add that Canada's universities have increased their financial assistance to international students, but that more work needs to be done.

You're asking most recently about temporary foreign workers. I would make the broader case about visa processing. I think we have a very strong policy environment right now, but the operational reality is very challenging, as we've heard from other witnesses here today about how to make sure we clear backlogs effectively.

I just want to underscore the point that Canada has done well historically by immigration and we're very fortunate to have a country where there's all-party support for immigration. We need to preserve that.

We also have to be very mindful that the competition is increasing. Mr. Biden, during his transition, talked virtually every day about increased expenditures for research and increased openness to immigration. That's going to be a very powerful draw. The work the United Kingdom is doing in offering results on visa processing within three weeks stands in stark contrast to the time frames that Canada can offer. That's no disrespect to the public servants; it just means that the stakes of the competition are that much stronger and we're all going to have to up our game.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Mr. Davidson, I'm going to raise a question. When I go out to see my constituents, one issue they raise is that these international students are taking spots from the local students. Could you elaborate on that, that it's not true? I tell them that it's not true, because the international spots are reserved only for them and the local spots are created by the provincial government.

[Paul Davidson]

I appreciate the chance to speak to that, because that's an ongoing challenge that we face as well, to convey—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Mr. Davidson, but time is up.

We will now move on to Madame Normandin for her six-minute round of questioning.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

First, I will ask Mr. Davidson a quick question, then I will turn to Mr. Hussan and Ms. Rajasekar.

Mr. Davidson, you talked about visas taking a long time to process. I'd like to link that with the issue of biometrics. We've heard about hotel workers from France who can't come here because we can't process their work permit applications, quite simply because we don't have their biometric data. It's not for security reasons.

Do your recommendations include obtaining foreign workers' biometric data when they arrive in Canada?

[Paul Davidson]

Thank you very much, Madame Normandin.

I'm going to ask my colleague, Wendy Therrien, to address this issue. She's been working closely on it.

[Wendy Therrien, Director, External Relations and Research, Universities Canada]

Thank you for the question, Ms. Normandin.

Yes, biometric processing for international students is tricky as well. We fully recognize that it's a major problem, and one of the reasons why it takes so long to process visa applications here in Canada.

We would like IRCC to adopt efficient procedures to accelerate access for international students and others to the Canadian market. If that means returning to a system where employees don't have to open files several times, but are able to deal with all the issues at the same time, that's what we would prefer.

We also see that things are changing fast and we need several tools in order to put our best foot forward.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Hussan and Ms. Rajasekar, among other things, you mentioned temporary foreign workers who are mistreated by their employers. It's almost like they are taken hostage. This is because they often have a closed work permit and can't choose another employer when they are mistreated.

I'd like to hear what you think of possibly issuing work permits that would be valid for certain sectors or job types in certain regions, for example, as opposed to closed permits. They would let foreign workers go to another employer if they are mistreated.

Do you think a measure like that could also improve working conditions, because, in a way, there would be greater competition for workers?

[Syed Hussan]

Absolutely. I think labour mobility is key, but it's very important that labour mobility programs, like sectoral programs, do not use the LMIA. For the last two years, ESDC has been pushing for LMIA-specific sectoral permits, which is to say that you can only change jobs if some employer has an open LMIA. This is almost impossible to do and doesn't actually guarantee labour mobility.

I think, though, that as much as possible, people's ability to move is essential. However, as we saw with COVID-19, 1,600 farm workers initially got sick—over 2,000 eventually—and three passed away. That has continued. There is more than labour mobility. The entire infrastructure of temporary immigration means that it is not possible to protect yourselves, even in the time of a public health pandemic. This is why our central recommendation is a single tier, which means everyone in the country has the same immigration status. That is the only way you can access all your rights.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

What are your thoughts, Ms. Rajasekar?

[Jennifer Rajasekar]

Maybe my colleague, Esel Panlaqui, will answer the question.

[Maria Esel Panlaqui]

Yes, it's the same thing with us. It's the precariousness of the workers' situation that makes it hard for them to assert their rights. Even with sectoral work, we would assume that there still are workers who are intimidated and scared to assert their rights and leave their employers, because they need to have connections, for example, to find new employers. That is why, in addition to this immigration policy, there should be an initiative by the federal government to ensure that workers are made aware upon their arrival in Canada of the programs, supports and groups that can assist them.

It's really a combination of good immigration policy and a strategy that would widely inform the workers about their rights—the education component. Again, we've been seeing that all these things are happening—we were hopeful that the caregivers' conditions would improve after the occupation-restricted open work permit—but after two years of announcements of big changes, we didn't see any improvement in their situation. We see that the issues are similar to what we've been having for so many years.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

I'm not clear on something, Mr. Hussan. You would like all workers to have the same status upon arrival. However, as we know, people can arrive in the country in different ways. For example, some can obtain permanent residency from abroad. Others arrive as temporary workers.

I'm not sure I understand how you'd like to proceed. Perhaps you could clarify that for me.

[Syed Hussan]

As I mentioned, just over 40 years ago, most people who were entering the country—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Mr. Hussan, but your time is up.

[Syed Hussan]

Oh yes, sorry, I forgot. Most—