Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Sept. 27th, 2022

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.

I want to turn to this question around migrant workers. Ms. Foster raised the issue around the need for the tourism sector. Canada also has over half a million people who are already here, and these are individuals whose work permits have expired. Much of it has to do with the COVID period. Some of them are actually from the restaurant sector and from the tourism sector.

Should the government be regularizing those individuals and giving them the opportunity to fill these openings and labour skill shortages in Canada?

Ms. Foster.

[Adrienne Foster]

I think the biggest focus for our industry, really, is to ensure that.... Tourism does, right now, have a real opportunity to recover and thrive, but we do need people. We're in the people business; we need people for that.

We want a system that really responds to high-demand occupations and sectors with growth potential, so your point about some of these migrant workers who are already in the country is an excellent one. We fully support creating a path to permanent residency for existing temporary foreign workers. They've already established relationships with their employers. They have networks in Canada, and they have a proven track record of being excellent community members and economic contributors, so I one hundred per cent support this idea of a path to permanent residency.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

That means regularizing them now because some of their work permits have actually expired because of COVID. During the COVID period, they actually lost their jobs because the restaurants and hotels didn't having tourists. Those individuals are here without status, so we should regularize them—just so that I'm clear in understanding your answer to that.

[Adrienne Foster]

Yes.

One of our recommendations is to open up permanent residency for people who have work experience here. Short of any issues and if the work permits just expired, I think they would be excellent candidates for long-term immigration.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much for that clarification.

With regard to another area, the impact of processing delays, we heard that there are discriminatory practices in certain countries and certain regions. For example, for Quebec, for francophone African applicants, oftentimes they actually get rejected.

Ms. Launay, in your experience through your work, do you have specific regions that you're concerned about with regard to processing delays?

[Claire Launay]

Yes.

Western Africa in general has seen worrying levels of rejections. I think IRCC has the numbers, but between 70% to above 80% are rejections, specifically for study permit applications. Obviously, because these are francophone countries, most of the students were bound to go to Quebec.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

To address that issue and these specific regional issues—although I could name other countries, too—what is your recommendation for the government to address that situation, specifically for Quebec?

[Claire Launay]

I think it all comes to allocation of resources. Again, we don't have enough visa offices and processing centres—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

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

We will now proceed to Mr. Redekopp.

Oh, it's Mr. Hallan.

Mr. Hallan, you will have four minutes.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

My first question is for Ms. Launay.

First of all, thank you for all that you do, and the advocacy with the limited resources as my friend, Alexis, mentioned.

We were talking about systemic challenges. We saw over the summer a number of conferences and events. We saw the negative effect that these Liberal-made immigration backlogs had on some of those conferences, like the one in Toronto where visas weren't approved. There were African elite runners who were to run the Ottawa marathon who didn't make it here, as well as a Nigerian pop star. Even at the AIDS conference in Montreal we saw these images of empty stages that were all due to backlogs that were created by the government. In most cases, these were applications from racialized people. In some cases, they were applied for months in advance, but because of the bureaucratic mess, they weren't able to come here.

You spoke of having faster processing, but fair processing. What kinds of changes do you think need to be made? Can you highlight some of the damage that has been done on the world stage when you see these conferences where racialized applicants are the ones being rejected?

[Claire Launay]

When it comes to visas, we get to the root of how immigration works in Canada, because not everybody needs a visa to get here. The nature of who needs a visa and who doesn't is bigger than I think what we're tackling today, and it affects disproportionately people of colour.

When it comes to the impact it has, it has been interesting for us to see it just in our own networks. We're very active on social media, and we post about all sorts of issues. You talked about the Nigerian pop star who was supposed to come to Festival International Nuits d'Afrique in Montreal. When we posted about that, our page exploded. People noticed that abroad.

That's one point I want to get across today. People are watching. Canada is an immigration destination for many people, and they see very well what's happening. When they see one of the biggest African pop stars being denied a visa, or experts on AIDS not being able to get to their conference, it sends a message that Canada is not a welcoming place for immigrants and experts. I think it runs contrary to what Canada is trying to do. Let's just put it that way.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

My next question is for Ms. Foster.

We've seen major labour shortages that are affecting the tourism industry. We have also seen a number of very divisive and unscientific policies by the government, for example, the ArriveCAN app.

Can you give some more examples of red tape or bureaucracy that's getting in the way of the tourism industry being able to either survive or thrive?

[Adrienne Foster]

We were very happy to see those restrictions lifted. It's going to go a really long way for our industry to have a strong fall. That's generally a bit of a quieter season, so being able to have business events and international visitation come through is really important. International visitation to Canada is down 43%, so anything we can do to help that is very welcome.

Really, the biggest red tape that our members are facing right now is with the temporary foreign worker program. With the labour shortages, we have general managers who are taking on other tasks. They are doing food and beverage or front desk, and they simply don't have the time—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

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

We will now go to Ms. Kayabaga for four minutes.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and a quick thank you to our witnesses for being here today.

Ms. Launay, the family reunification category makes up almost 16% of Quebec's immigration plan for 2022, whereas the same category represents 24% of immigration levels in the rest of Canada.

Do you believe that this difference will have an impact on waiting times that Quebec families are undergoing in order to be united with their loved ones?

[Claire Launay]

I would rather not hasard an opinion.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Why not?

[Claire Launay]

I don't have the answer.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Do you believe that the family reunification category should represent a bigger proportion of annual immigration Levels? You have spoken about the issue here.

[Claire Launay]

Those levels are set by Quebec.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Precisely. Do you believe that the family reunification category, of which you have spoken freely today, which is a very good thing, should take up a bigger chunk of immigration levels for Quebec?

[Claire Launay]

If it allows us to improve processing times, yes.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Were you aware that we went over and above the annual levels set by Quebec last year?

[Claire Launay]

Is that due to the efforts to catch up for the year 2020? I know that Quebec had increased its cap to 70,000 immigrants.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

You know therefore that Quebec sets a cap and we nonetheless went over that cap last year.