Evidence of meeting #26 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.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Can you please say another two sentences, Ms. Arellano? We will try again.
Law Clerk and Community Advocate-Volunteer, As an Individual
The minimum requirements and qualifications may mean more caregivers will have a second chance to work legally and have a shot at PR in Canada.
Liberal
Law Clerk and Community Advocate-Volunteer, As an Individual
I have hard copies of my notes. If Ms. Christine Normandin would like a copy of my notes, I would certainly send it to you as soon as we're done.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Yes, Ms. Arellano. If you don't mind, you can send that to the clerk of the committee and then we will circulate it to all the members.
We are left with a few minutes, Mr. Hallan. Would you like to have the rest of your time with another witness?
You have one minute and 15 seconds.
Conservative
Jasraj Singh Hallan Conservative Calgary Forest Lawn, AB
Ms. Arellano, I was going to ask you about what you think about the processing time of 12 months. It seems like it's a little long, especially for people with disabilities living in the house. Could you please submit that as well?
I'll move on to the CFA, and anyone can answer this.
We're talking about the issues about testing, how it's affected employers and how much it costs, especially when the testing centres or where they fly in from is kind of far away. What are some of your suggestions, from beginning to end, on how we change this process? How do we make it more streamlined?
Assistant Executive Director, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
I can take a start, Chris, if you'd like.
When it comes to the testing regime under Switch Health in particular, one of the issues we've seen is that often results are either being lost in courier or in translation to the end laboratory. As a result, there are a number of workers left in quarantine simply because they don't have the results of their day 10 test.
One of the options we've proposed is more leveraging of other private sector health practitioners and third-party laboratories that are out there. There's a sense, generally, that the system is just overwhelmed at the moment. Trying to take advantage of other resources that exist and leveraging those to make sure that we don't see that happen—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Sorry for interrupting, Mr. Ross.
The time is up for Mr. Hallan. We will now proceed to Mr. Regan.
Mr. Regan, you will have four minutes for your round of questioning, and then we will end this panel. Thank you.
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I'd like to start with the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, perhaps Mr. van den Heuvel. How difficult is it, in farming generally, to get and keep qualified workers?
Also, we've heard from you today about the challenge of organizing charter flights during the pandemic. How has the pandemic impacted the level of reliance that agriculture has on temporary foreign workers? Will your labour needs change in some way, do you think, when the pandemic ends?
Second Vice-President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
There's no doubt that this industry is one that's very difficult, with a lot of hard, back-breaking labour, but it's not what we'd consider low-skilled labour. That's one clarification we would like to put forth. These workers who are coming in are often very highly skilled, and they're extremely good at what they do. It makes it very difficult to backfill these positions with Canadians, who are often a couple of generations removed from their farms. There's no doubt that we do rely on these workers coming in.
As far as labour changing, perhaps after the pandemic, I think the issue is only going to become worse. The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council has pointed out in its studies that the labour shortfall is projected to double in the next 10 years, so I think we're going to be inundated with requests for positions, and not being able to fulfill those is only going to put us in a worse situation.
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
What's your view of open work permits?
Also, have you had any experience with the vulnerable workers pilot program? I think Mr. Ross might have mentioned it. I'm not sure.
Second Vice-President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
Yes. I'll let Scott address that.
Assistant Executive Director, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
I'm not sure what you're speaking to on the last initiative. I know the Migrant Worker Support Network is centralized out of British Columbia. I know some of our members have been involved in that, but I can't speak to that necessarily myself.
When it comes to the issue of open work permits, the concerns our members have, very much, are the time, energy and resources it takes to bring a worker into Canada, and the extensive relationship and investment that exist there, with predictability of labour being a big question.
I don't think there's outright opposition to the notion of occupational work permits, but there would have to be some sort of system in place to ensure that farmers who are facing a harvest are not suddenly without critical labour at that time, seeing food go to waste and facing lost opportunities.
When you look at the time it takes to turn around an application, which is four to six months at a minimum, it's just not realistic for farmers to be able to find another worker. The pandemic has really highlighted that. Even when Canadians were significantly displaced from their other employment, we did not see a drive of a lot of Canadians workers coming to farming. The solution, likely, in many respects, still resides internationally. We just need to have a means of ensuring predictability and availability of labour, at critical harvest windows and seeding, as examples.
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
Mr. Mackie and Ms. Mekni, do either of you have a view on how to deal with this issue?
Executive Director, Atlantic Region Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies
Craig, I'll let you take that.
Co-Chair, Board of Directors, Atlantic Region Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies
Thanks, Myriam.
I would echo what Mr. Ross just said. I think there's consistency across a lot of sectors that it's the approach to take. Rather than taking up more time, I'll echo that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Sorry for interrupting. Mr. Regan, your time is up.
We are now left with eight minutes left to go and vote, so this panel comes to an 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. If, for lack of time, you were not able to bring some of the recommendations or information forward, you can always send a written submission to the clerk of the committee. That information will be circulated to the members, and we will take it into consideration as we go through this study. Thank you once again.
For all the members, we will log in immediately after the vote and have our second hour considering the draft report. Please log into the in camera meeting immediately after the vote.
Thank you once again. We'll see you in a few minutes.
[Proceedings continue in camera]