Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 21st, 2021

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

That's great, thank you very much.

I have one last question, quickly. Would the mobility that could be achieved through work permits also foster that transition, as it would help immigrants specialize during their time here?

[Alexandre Gagnon]

Indeed. Governments are actually also starting to invest in labour development and training for temporary foreign workers. They hope it will not be a temporary passage. We must seize the opportunity to support workers, to train them and to francize them—in Quebec, obviously—so that they can be properly integrated into our businesses over the long term.

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

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Madam Normandin, your time is up.

We will now end our first panel with Ms. Kwan.

Ms. Kwan, you have two minutes for your round of questioning.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Going back to my previous question, Mr. Johnstone was just about to talk about the reasons why people lost their status. I wonder if he could finish.

[Derek Johnstone]

Well, it goes back to my earlier point. A lot of folks are in a situation where they're facing some abusive treatment by employers. They feel obliged.... In that scenario, as I've said, going home is not really an option for them. Not only is the money they earn in Canada needed to support their families back home, but they may also owe it to somebody, so they have to stay here. The only alternative, when you're tied to a single employer and you can't go home, is that you go off the grid and you become part of the labour black market. That's the reality. It's becoming more and more common for migrants in high-density areas such as Leamington, Ontario, in particular.

Again, it goes back to my other point. These are the folks who have been picking our food throughout COVID and for the 50 years before that. They're the ones who have really kept some of our most crucial sectors going throughout this period. It seems kind of reckless for us to all of a sudden demand that this skilled group of workers be sent home. Number one, we owe them for the contribution they've made to keeping Canada going over the last year and for the decades before that. On top of that, it's the right thing to do.

It's the right thing to do, and we need the skills in this country.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Can I ask if the government should change the program, then, and allow the people who are already here and who have lost status to be able to get permanent resident status?

[Derek Johnstone]

Absolutely.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much.

We only have seconds left, I think, so in terms of final words, what is your most urgent issue that you want the government to take on immediately?

[Derek Johnstone]

The most urgent issue the government needs to take on right now is to take.... There's this acceptance that the only way to solve labour market challenges in Canada is to open the floodgates to temporary foreign workers who never have the opportunity to become full citizens of this country. We need to abandon that immediately, and we need to start looking at permanent immigration while at the same time properly investing in domestic labour sources as part of a larger strategy—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

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

I would like to thank our witnesses for appearing before the committee today. If there's anything you would like to bring to the committee's notice but you did not have time to do so, you can always send us a written submission.

With this, our first panel comes to an end. I will suspend the meeting for a few minutes so that we can have the sound check for our witnesses for the second panel before we proceed.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We will continue our study of the temporary foreign workers program.

I would like to welcome our witnesses. Thank you for joining us today.

We are joined by Olymel L.P., represented by Louis Banville, vice-president, human resources; and Isabelle Leblond, corporate director, human resources.

Our next witness is the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, represented by Leah Nord, senior director, workforce strategies and inclusive growth.

We are also joined by Restaurants Canada, represented by Lauren van den Berg, executive vice-president, government relations; and Olivier Bourbeau, vice-president, federal and Quebec.

Welcome, all. All the witnesses will have five minutes for their opening remarks.

We will start with Mr. Banville, vice-president, human resources.

Please proceed.

[Louis Banville, Vice-president, Human Resources, Olymel L.P.]

Thank you very much.

I will stay within the five minutes allocated to us and will share that time with my colleague Ms. Leblond.

Olymel thanks the committee for the opportunity to share its concerns in the context of the current labour shortage and to contribute to the government's deliberations.

Olymel is the country's leading pork producer and its leading meat processor. We employ 15,000 workers in Canada, across five provinces: Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Alberta and Saskatchewan. We are a key player in the vitality and prosperity of our regions.

Over the years, Olymel has continued to improve all its practices to optimize each of its recruitment channels. Despite all of our local and international efforts, we are unable to complement our workforce to support our activities and our growth. The repercussions of the labour shortage are reaching an unprecedented critical level and are being felt in our activities across Canada, but mainly in the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick.

We currently estimate the rate of vacant positions in our plants at 27%, which represents more than 3,700 positions. Those positions are necessary to avoid the downsizing of our company, to make our plants operate at their maximum capacity, to optimize past investments and to successfully carry out future projects. Those 3,700 positions would create an additional payroll of $200 million and an additional investment of $250 million.

I want to point out that the temporary foreign workers employed at Olymel are represented by a union. They have a pension fund and insurance. They have the same work conditions as any Canadian employee; they are entitled to the same treatment and to the same protection. I also want to add that Olymel has a long-term perspective on foreign workers and supports them financially and legally to help them obtain their permanent residence.

One of our sector's major characteristics is that the industry is directly connected to primary agriculture. Animal production is connected to our slaughterhouses. A slowdown in our slaughterhouse activities has major upstream consequences on production. We are closely connected. That special phenomenon must be taken into account when it comes to our facilities' operational capability. Ms. Leblond will come back to this later.

Olymel feels that economic immigration, be it permanent or temporary, is one of the key solutions for meeting our labour needs, especially for positions in the regions that do not require special skills.

Currently, 600 immigrant newcomers are working with us. Nearly 610 employees who arrived through the temporary foreign worker program have been with us since 2018, and we are expecting 600 others over the next year.

I now yield the floor to my colleague Ms. Leblond.

[Isabelle Leblond, Corporate Director, Human Resources, Olymel L.P.]

Good afternoon. I am the corporate director of human resources at Olymel.

I actively participate in anything to do with recruitment. I will mainly talk about the temporary foreign worker program, or TFWP. Olymel feels that the TFWP does not make it possible to adequately meet its current workforce needs in the regions. Mr. Banville talked to you earlier about the high number of positions we want to fill.

Our brief submitted yesterday contains more recommendations on a number of issues, and I will not discuss all of them. I will focus today on the two biggest issues—the limit set by the TFWP when it comes to the hiring of temporary foreign workers and their access to permanent residence.

The TFWP arbitrarily set at 10% the percentage of temporary foreign workers we can hire, and that is a major problem for us. We have come up with a recommendation on that limit. Since our slaughterhouse activities are a logical continuation of primary agriculture, as Mr. Banville pointed out, we want the limits to exempt the positions related to primary agriculture listed under the national occupational classification, such as food processing labourers and industrial butchers.

Should our recommendation related to this be rejected, we also propose to increase the limit to 30%, which would apply to the entire company, not only to the workplace. This could be another solution, but we by far prefer the first recommendation I submitted to you.

As for the permanent selection of temporary foreign workers, Olymel applauds the measures adopted by the federal government, whether we are talking about pilot programs or recently announced measures to allow temporary foreign workers doing essential work to apply for permanent residence. However, nearly all of our temporary foreign workers are currently unable to participate in those two programs because of the Canada–Quebec accord.

Quebec recently created a pilot program related to processing—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I’m sorry for interrupting, but your time is up. You will get an opportunity to talk further when we go to our round of questioning.

We will now hear from Ms. Nord, representing the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Ms. Nord, you will have five minutes for your opening remarks. You can proceed, please.

[Leah Nord, Senior Director, Workforce Strategies and Inclusive Growth, Canadian Chamber of Commerce]

Thank you, Madam Chair, vice-chairs and committee members.

I am speaking on behalf of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, which is the voice of Canadian business. We represent 200,000 businesses across the country, across sectors and across sizes, with our network that includes 450 chambers of commerce and boards of trade across the country, including our colleagues from FCCQ, whom you just heard from.

I'd like to thank them, the panellists before and the panellists with us here today, and the committee for the opportunity to speak to you today about the temporary foreign worker program and LMIAs, in particular.

I will start by saying that immigration plays an important role in the inclusive growth and diversity of Canadian workforces and communities. The Canadian Chamber promotes innovative and effective policies and programming to support new Canadians with labour market and community integration.

Throughout the pandemic, we have seen rising unemployment rates, and expectations are that the employment rate will not level out and return, at least permanently, to pre-crisis levels any time in the immediate future. However, despite these changes in the labour market, you heard last week from Statistics Canada, for example, that despite those fluctuating employment rates over the past year, throughout the crisis the job vacancy rate has stayed at the same pre-pandemic level. Thus, immigration will continue to play an important role in filling labour market gaps.

Although the Canadian Chamber has a number of recommendations to improve and modernize the temporary foreign worker program, we maintain that this program is a key component to the immigration system. We have also long supported pathways to permanent residency for temporary permit holders.

In regard to labour markets as we start to consider Canada's recovery post-pandemic, the Canadian Chamber believes that labour market analysis will play a critical role for a host of reasons, including immigration levels planning, and we can speak more to this in the Qs and As. We also could support the continued devolution of the immigration selection process and a continuation of moving to local levels of decision-making through the PNPs, the Atlantic immigration program, the expansion of pilots, including the rural and northern immigration pilot, and the promised municipal nominee program. We need local solutions built by communities for communities, with strong involvement from the business community, to effectively address community workforce needs.

With this said, I will now turn my attention to the focus of the committee's review. Heading into today, we canvassed a number of members and some feedback we received includes the following points, which I will note aren't limited to LMIAs, but that a broader commentary is needed to convey the totality of administrative and financial burdens.

First of all, permit processing times have traditionally been very lengthy. You've heard any number of examples of this, which defy the needs, particularly in the sectors that are seasonal in nature.

Second, permit processing adds to the administrative length and burden. Additional factors include needing to establish an account with the Job Bank, getting vacancies posted, requiring a one-month advertising period, and then LMIA processing times, etc.

Also, LMIA processing times have actually decreased through the pandemic, yet many members, especially in the agricultural sector, have said that more proactive communication is needed with stakeholders to help manage the program in light of evolving travel restrictions, border policies, etc.

We also have heard that consistency is needed in Service Canada. For example, there is often confusion between agricultural work permits and those in the low-wage stream.

Finally, our members have also found that a lack of communication and understanding between ministries, departments—namely, ESDC and IRCC—create further delays and administrative burdens.

The Canadian Chamber today has one main recommendation, and that is the development and implementation of a trusted employers program. As for the time I have left, I'll fit in as many considerations as I can.

First of all, such a program streamlines the application process and reduces the administrative burden for governments, businesses and workers. The same businesses often apply over and over again. It removes the need to constantly reassess legitimacy and focuses on the merits of each case and application.

Second, a number of our members, business partner associations and organizations have advocated for this for a number of years. The U.K. and Australia have successful TEP programs that have been implemented for more than a decade. We do have a precedent in Canada somewhat with the global talent stream, which does not require LMIAs.

We recommend starting with a preferred status model like a NEXUS model, with consideration over time to moving towards more of an across-the-board accreditation model.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Ms. Nord, but your time is up. You will have an opportunity when we go into our round of questioning.

We will now proceed to Restaurants Canada. I assume Ms. Lauren van den Berg will be speaking on behalf of Restaurants Canada.

Ms. van den Berg, you will have five minutes for your opening remarks. You can please proceed.

[Olivier Bourbeau, Vice-President, Federal and Quebec, Restaurants Canada]

Actually, it will be me, if that's okay with you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Okay. I'm sorry about that.

You can proceed, please.

[Olivier Bourbeau]

Thank you very much.

Restaurants and many small and medium-sized businesses that make up the Canadian food service sector are a critical pillar of our culture, economy and local communities. Before the pandemic struck, our industry comprised over 98,000 establishments from coast to coast to coast, serving about 22 million customers every day and contributing 4% to the country's GDP. Prior to this crisis, the food service sector was Canada's fourth largest employer, directly employing 1.2 million people and was also the number one source of first jobs for young Canadians.

We're also a reflection of Canada's enviable diversity. Women make up 58% of the food service workforce and 31% of restaurant owners, operators and staff belong to a visible minority. Half of all Canadian restaurants are run by talented, hard-working entrepreneurs who came here as immigrants. Immigration was vitally important to our industry before we were hit with COVID-19. This crisis has made the need for reforms all the more critical.

Heading into the pandemic, the restaurant sector was already struggling to fill more than 60,000 vacant positions. One in five Canadians between the ages of 15 and 24 are employed in the restaurant sector, but the workforce participation among teens has been steadily declining, unfortunately.

By its nature, food service is very labour intensive. Finding any staff, let alone staff with applicable skills and experience, has become more challenging than ever.

COVID-19 hit and turned an already challenging situation into a full-blown labour crisis for our industry. The food service sector lost more jobs in the first six weeks of the pandemic than the entire Canadian economy lost during the 2008-09 recession. No other industry comes close to this level of shortfall. One out of every five jobs lost during the initial lockdown from March to April 2020 was in Canada's restaurant sector. During this period, more than 800,000 food service workers lost their jobs or had their hours of work reduced to zero.

At a time when all other industries have recovered an average of 90% of their pandemic job losses, the restaurant sector still hasn't recovered half of the jobs it lost, which represents 300,000 fewer jobs in the Canadian food service sector and roughly 50,000 employees who are not currently working any hours.

By the time restaurants across the country are ready to reopen and bring back their staff, many of these workers will have already found employment elsewhere. What began as a shortage of 60,000 restaurant positions before the pandemic could become a substantially higher labour crisis for our industry, which could jeopardize the ability of many restaurants to stay in business.

We are losing our employees because of the closures and reopenings caused by COVID-19. After the first wave, our employees came back to work, but, after the second wave, a number of them had already decided to find a new job in another field. What we are seeing now, with the third wave, is that a growing number of workers are permanently turning to other industries.

Our industry was already seeking 60,000 workers before COVID-19; it is easy to imagine the number of people we will need for the next reopening.

Knowing that the demographic pyramid will escalate that labour problem, we are looking into ways to attract and retain talent in our industry. Immigration is definitely a crucial one. It comes with its share of challenges, but it is worth it, especially since immigrants enrich our industry from their culture to our table.

Persistent labour shortages put a damper on investment and expansion. Even existing businesses are at risk if they can't be properly staffed. The restaurant industry is one of Canada's largest employers, the biggest source of first-time jobs for youth and an important part of every urban and rural community across the country.

We are therefore proposing a comprehensive national labour strategy that includes a food service stream of the temporary foreign worker program, which will be provided to you following this session.

In the interest of time, here are three recommendations for you to remember today:

The first is the fast-track list process for specific jobs, which gets prioritized by provinces, from which Quebec, for instance, made the mistake of taking out four key positions for our industry.

The second one is to reduce the administrative burden of the small business owners who most heavily rely on the program by increasing minimum temporary foreign worker work permits to two years, reducing the $1,000 fee and redefining it as a “per position” fee.

The third is to ensure that successful applicants are included in a form of fast track for immigrant approval.

Finally, as Canada continues to shift—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Mr. Bourbeau, but your time is up. You will get an opportunity to speak further in our round of questioning.

We will now move to our first round of questioning of six minutes each.

We will start with Mr. Allison.

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West, ON]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Bourbeau, you were just getting to your third point.

Could you give us that third point with which you were going to finish off?

[Olivier Bourbeau]

I was simply going to conclude.

The third point was to ensure successful applicants are included in a form of a fast track for immigrant approval, so that we can hire them again and then potentially keep them in Canada to become permanent residents.

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West, ON]

I don't always give the government credit, but what was recently announced in terms of new pathways to permanent residency will definitely help in that case.

To all our guests today, one of the things that is lacking, and all of you touched on it, is a sector-specific strategy or a labour strategy, in general. The talk is 20,000 applicants for temporary foreign workers in health care. This is the new program for permanent residency. There are 30,000 applicants for temporary workers in other essential occupations and 40,000 applicants for international students.

I see your 90,000, and yet I heard during your speech, Mr. Bourbeau, you're short 50,000 to 60,000 workers right now. If we're looking at immigration of around 400,000 people a year, which is what the government is targeting, you guys would not be opposed to a higher percentage. It seems to me there is less than 25% that could be thought of in terms of the stream.

That's my first question for Restaurants Canada.

[Olivier Bourbeau]

I do agree with you. Yes, pre-COVID, we were 60,000 workers short, so definitely, if we can raise the bar, we would be delighted.

We need people in key positions. We're not talking about people washing dishes. We are talking about cooks, chefs, restaurant managers, key positions, really important ones.