Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 12th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

We will now proceed to Mr. Seeback.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

I was just wondering if the department knows what the intake status is of each of the three streams, the health care workers, the temporary workers and the international students?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

I'll turn to Mr. Mills, who has his finger on the pulse. The international graduate stream is full.

Mr. Mills, I wonder if you have the latest update on the other two streams.

[Daniel Mills]

Thank you for the question.

Here are the numbers that were posted at 3:08 p.m. on our website.

We have received 1,172 applications for health care workers in Canada and 6,737 applications for essential non-health care workers, out of a maximum allowable number of 30,000.

If you wish, I can also give you the numbers for the French-speaking stream. We have received 16 applications from French-speaking health care workers, as well as 293 applications from French-speaking essential non-health care workers. Finally, we have received 117 applications from French-speaking international graduates of Canadian educational institutions.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Thank you very much.

Those numbers seem fairly low, given that when you look at things like family reunification and parent and grandparent, those categories close within a couple of hours of being opened. I'm going to leave it to somebody else on the committee to ask if there are insights as to why this has been slow in those categories so far.

I want to go back to what Ms. Kwan was talking about with the undocumented workers. There's a huge number of undocumented construction workers in the GTA in the Portuguese community. I've been approached by members of the Portuguese community numerous times about this.

Other than fairness, is there a rationale as to why we would not have wanted to expand the program to people like them? They've been gainfully employed in the construction industry, sometimes for 20 or 25 years. This, to me, seems like it would be a perfect pathway for them to become documented.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

Certainly it is a complex and challenging population to reach. There are numerous pathways and perhaps I will speak to a few of them.

As the honourable member Ms. Kwan noted, the minister is certainly proud of the so-called “guardian angels” pathway for the essential health care workers on the front line. Some of those people had fallen out of status. They were asylum seekers whose claims might not have been successful. That was one that was undertaken.

The department also has a pilot pathway for construction workers in the greater Toronto area. We've learned a lot about the population there.

In terms of the temporary resident to permanent resident pathway that was just announced, I think it was really a sense of what the objective is. The core objective of that is really an economic pathway. That economic pathway is about ensuring that Canada is well positioned—or as well positioned as it can be—for economic recovery through the pandemic.

The pathways were open to international graduates, who we know have strong human capital, good language proficiency and Canadian work experience. It's also to recognize the breadth and depth of Canada's economy with health care workers, who we know are critical right now. We want to recognize and acknowledge their contributions in the pandemic, as well as those of other essential workers on the front line.

I think there are many lessons from COVID-19. One of them is underscoring the range of jobs that are absolutely essential and critical to Canada's economy. That's what these temporary residence pathways were about and facilitating and recognizing those who are here now contributing to Canada's economy and going forward.

I hope that helps.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Sure. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting. Your time is up.

We will now proceed to Mr. Dhaliwal.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to thank the officials for their great work. This announcement on the pathway was made well in advance, but it wasn't clear what documents and information the applicants were required to be prepared to submit, which may have led to small errors and omissions in their applications.

Even today we can see that those two categories are not full, so I would suggest to the officials that instead of just rejecting those applications, they should be given a fair chance and sent a procedural fairness letter to address those concerns, instead of just taking that application out. That is my suggestion.

Secondly, Madam Campbell Jarvis was talking about essential work. When you go to many small restaurants, you see those NOC code 6513 and NOC code 6711 food and beverage servers, food counter attendants and kitchen helpers. I go to a small restaurant. Those food servers are the ones who greet people and seat them. They take the orders, serve the food and then at the end clean up the table. They work as cashiers.

I personally feel that category should be part of that essential workers stream. I request that you, the officials—and also, through you, the minister—see if we can include those NOC codes in those categories. Those essential positions are still at 7,637 out of the 30,000.

Many people have expressed frustration and confusion regarding the eligible NOC codes. There is conflicting information around that. Could officials please provide to this committee, in writing, the list of all eligible NOC codes for the six separate streams and also the ones they can include?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are some really excellent questions there.

Just to take them in turn, with respect to the disparity in how quickly some of the applications are coming in, I think it really does come back to that client behaviour. We know that international graduates often seek that pathway. A number have made the transition before, so it wasn't surprising to us that they were first out of the gate, but it's still really early days on the other ones.

We have put forward that six-month runway to really allow time for other essential workers and health care workers and francophone speakers to have that time to apply. I think we're going to see some changes over the next couple of months, and there's still time left, so I don't think we need to worry yet.

With respect to the question and comment about small restaurant owners, one thing in putting this together is that the minister had a lot of things to consider and a lot of priorities to balance. By selecting particular NOC codes for “essential”, it certainly doesn't mean that other positions aren't essential, but we did hear from stakeholders, and when we look at employment data—in particular, that provided by the labour council—we know that there are certain areas where there are a number of Canadians who are ready to work, so we weren't looking at codes where there would already be high unemployment rates. Certainly, the contributions of restaurant workers are really important in Canada and to Canada's economy, but there was a lot of thought put behind the balance of that.

One of the other points I wanted to mention is that all of the other pathways still exist: the provincial nominee program, the rural and northern immigration pilot and the Atlantic immigration pilot. All of those pathways still exist alongside this special temporary public policy that was put in place, so there will be opportunities above and beyond this pathway.

I think I heard that the last question was on an undertaking in writing for the NOC codes that are part of this, as well as the ones that aren't. Certainly, we've made note of that. I would warn, Madam Chair, that the NOC code list is fairly extensive, but we'd certainly do our best with that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

Madame Normandin, you will have two and a half minutes.

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

As I stated previously, I will give my time to Mr. Manly.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

Go ahead, please, Mr. Manly.

[Paul Manly, Green, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I want to follow up on the undocumented workers who are already here. Has the government or the department considered putting out an amnesty?

In terms of having an amnesty and offering a pathway to citizenship, if these are workers who you're saying are difficult to reach and if some of these workers have been working here for a long time, I'm sure they would love to be documented and to have that ability to have citizenship so that they can come and go without the fear of losing their ability to return to the country.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

That's certainly a very complex area, and a number of considerations are behind that one. That is a policy choice question, which would be one for the minister.

[Paul Manly, Green, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

With the graduates program, how many spaces were available for that? Are those graduates, if they fit into other categories but may not yet have experience in those categories, able to apply through other pathways?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

There were 40,000 spaces for international graduates in this particular program. The other pathways do continue, and we know that international graduates tend to do very well in express entry under the Canada experience class, for example.

In terms of who may apply to the other pathways, if a student had the required health care experience, they may apply under that stream. Quite similarly, if an international graduate happened to be an essential worker and met the criteria for that program, then we may see people in that space.

Certainly—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

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

We will proceed to Ms. Kwan.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.

For the applicants whose work permit may have expired after they made the application, will they have implied status or would there be a process of bridging work permits put in place for them?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

That's a good question and one that we are looking at.

As per the terms of public policy, people do need to be in status and currently working. However, for those who apply and whose work permit may expire after they've applied, they can certainly reapply, as the honourable member said, to retain that status.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Are you saying that if your work permit expires after you've made the application under this stream and you are not able to resecure status that you would be disqualified?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

In that particular instance, we would have to look at that particular situation. That's one thing we are considering now. According to the requirements of the public policy, one must be in status when they apply. I think the hope is that applicants would avail themselves of the facilitative measures that are in place now to renew their status.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Yes, but there are some individuals who may not be able to reapply because they might be on an LMIA work-specific permit. If they can't secure another LMIA, they'll be out of status. In that instance, are you saying that those individuals would be disqualified? I think this is actually quite a critical point, because I've been asked this question numerous times by applicants and people dealing with the situation.

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

As always in the immigration space, there are all sorts of individual circumstances that can arise. I would need to follow up on that particular instance.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I'd like to actually get a response for the committee, if I could, from the officials on that, because I think we need clarity on that question.

With respect to issues around people having a disadvantage because of the language requirement, some of the testing organizations are not able to book people in—