Evidence of meeting #82 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was abuse.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director General, Immigration Program Guidance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I can't point back to a specific date for when or if that changed. I'm only looking at the website as it currently reads.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I can tell you for sure that I've met with workers. I've tried to assist them. I've appealed to former ministers about people having been terminated or who left their employment and are subject to abuse.
I tried to assist them in getting access to this program and I failed. I appealed to the ministers directly for support on that, and they said they do not qualify.
That is the reality for the people I dealt with.
There was a change in policy at some point in time. I don't know exactly when. The website I'm staring at right now on my computer tells me something different.
One of the issues that has come up over and over again with respect to this—and it was cited—is that ESDC potentially goes to check on these violations. Are you aware of ESDC flagging for the employer that it's coming?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Temporary Foreign Worker Program, Department of Employment and Social Development
We have a blend of announced and unannounced inspections that take place depending upon the nature of the inspection we are undertaking.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Can you provide a breakdown of that? How many are announced and how many are unannounced? Can you provide that information to the committee if you don't have those numbers?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Temporary Foreign Worker Program, Department of Employment and Social Development
Yes, we can do that.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
How often do Service Canada inspections take place over the phone?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Temporary Foreign Worker Program, Department of Employment and Social Development
The nature of the inspections changed with COVID. During the time of COVID, a significant proportion of all the inspections were done virtually. At this point in time, of all of our active inspections, about 46% of them are on site versus 54% being virtual.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
How can you possibly check and see about these violations if you're on the phone?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Temporary Foreign Worker Program, Department of Employment and Social Development
We have 28 different conditions that we inspect, and not all of those conditions require us to be on site. If we're doing a check against the documentation provided by the employer as it relates to wages paid, we can do that virtually.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Is it possible that the employer would just provide false information? How do you verify that?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Temporary Foreign Worker Program, Department of Employment and Social Development
We have an opportunity to engage with the temporary foreign workers who are involved. As an example, since 2021, our inspections have resulted in our engaging either directly or indirectly with about 25,000 temporary foreign workers.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Thank you, Madam Kwan. Your time is up.
We will go to Mr. Redekopp for five minutes, please.
Go ahead.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Regarding the United Nations report that we've been talking about all evening, Deputy Minister, has a formal response been drafted for the minister or our UN ambassador to respond to this report?
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
At this stage, the report is still a preliminary report. The final report is expected, I believe, in July 2024, at which point a formal response would be drafted.
Right now we're taking a look at the recommendations. We are looking at some of the recommendations and some of the points that have been made. For instance, one of the recommendations that the UN special rapporteur has made points to the fact that we need to make our open work permit for vulnerable workers easier to navigate and easy to apply for, so we're looking at simplification of some of the elements. That would be one thing that we're not waiting for until the final report; we're looking at it now.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Are you going to have a chance to give feedback to the rapporteur before he does the report, or is his report going to be without your input?
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We will have an opportunity. He published the interim report in August. There will be an opportunity. We've been working very closely with Global Affairs and our partners at ESDC to come back to him with some of our responses to his recommendations and his findings. We'll continue that dialogue.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Are you going to be able to tame down the language on slavery, or is that going to be baked in?
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
At the end of the day, he will own the report and have the ability to shape it as he wishes. We will give factual information about IRCC and ESDC programs.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Did he provide you with any direct evidence or specific incidents of racism, xenophobia or anything like that, or is this just all his commentary?
Director General, Immigration Program Guidance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes. During his visit in Ottawa, there were opportunities for officials from various departments to brief him on the various programs that were the subject of his report.
Conservative
Director General, Immigration Program Guidance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I wasn't personally at those briefings. I'm not aware whether or not evidence was provided.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
My colleague Ms. Kwan asked the minister about granting permanent residence to TFWs. His response was no. In other words, it's an automatic granting of PR.
Has the minister given you any direction on this? Do you know the reasoning behind that decision?
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
My understanding is that the minister indicated that there are pathways for temporary residents to become permanent residents. In fact, in 2022, 177,000 people moved from temporary residency to permanent residency. I think that 95,000 of those were international students. We try to look at some of the pathways we could explore as a country to facilitate that transition. I think that as a country we benefit from people who are here contributing and have Canadian experience and who have attended a university or college. I think, regarding those pathways, we are always looking for—
Conservative