Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 7th, 2023

[Christiane Fox]

There are.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

—and making it automatic is not necessary. Is that a fair statement?

[Christiane Fox]

I don't think we could make every temporary resident automatic, because not every temporary resident wants to have an automatic permanent residency.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

That's fair enough.

Regarding the inspections Ms. Kwan was asking about, there was a PowerPoint presentation I saw from Service Canada that was given to some farm groups. It was talking about inspections. It's titled “The Temporary Foreign Worker Program and compliance regime”, and it's dated November 9, 2022. It's from Service Canada. It mentioned on slide 23 that for the agriculture sector 61% of TFW employers are fully compliant, 38% are compliant with justification and 1% are non-compliant.

Mr. MacPhee, does that sound correct to you?

[Michael MacPhee]

Thank you.

At that point in time when that was produced, yes, that does sound accurate.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Is it possible to table that PowerPoint presentation with the committee for use as evidence, sir?

[Michael MacPhee]

Yes. We can follow up with that information.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

That would be great.

Now, in terms of the inspections, you said that 54% are done remotely.

You also said there are a number of things you can test remotely and others that you can't. Of the ones you can't really test remotely, are those still done remotely or do you have to go to the business to inspect those things?

[Michael MacPhee]

Yes, we are doing on-site inspections, both announced and unannounced.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you, honourable member.

We'll go to Madam Zahid for five minutes, please.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thanks to the officials for appearing before the committee.

My first question is in regard to the process of investigation. How do you investigate the employers' compliance? Is it solely complaint-based or are there any random audits that you do?

[Christiane Fox]

I will start on the IMP, on that program. I think what I would say is that there are kind of three methods.

There are tips that we receive in the department.

It could be, because of a history of non-compliance, that we would do a check-in.

Then there would be a random selection that we would choose to inspect.

[Michael MacPhee]

That's the same model that we employ as well.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

[Technical difficulty—Editor] compliance, would it involve site visits or phone calls? How do you decide which ones will have visits and which ones will be phone calls?

[Christiane Fox]

I think there are some considerations as to how those decisions are made. In the context of whether the non-compliance was a fairly minor infraction, then maybe it would be a check-in with the employer or a check-in with the worker virtually.

If it was a tip that was significant and large scale, that, we feel, warrants an in-person site visit. Then, of course, if those lead to further challenges, we would also involve law enforcement if that is required.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Do you have any numbers with regard to the breakdown between the site visits and the phone calls?

[Christiane Fox]

I have a breakdown within sort of total inspections, so that's 3,381 for us, but we can get you the breakdown of how many were in person. We can definitely table that with the committee.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you.

In 2021, the same committee recommended the creation of a trusted employer program. Has that been explored? Are there any developments on that?

[Michael MacPhee]

Thank you.

Yes. We've now titled it the “recognized employer pilot”. Phase one of that was launched or announced in August of this year and focused on the agriculture sector. Phase two will launch in January 2024 for other sectors.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

In budget 2022, $14.6 million was allocated to improve the employer inspections and “hold employers accountable for the treatment of workers”. What will be the result of this spending?

[Christiane Fox]

I think we were able to increase our inspection activity, which meant that we were able to administer monetary penalties to the companies. We've been able to administer about $670,000. There have been more compensation payments as a result. I think the funding has gone to create more capacity for inspection and enforcement.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you.

In a CBC article on April 23, it was reported that the average time from complaint to resolution in 2021-22 was “538 days”. Is it the same now? Or has it been reduced or has it increased? What is the current number?

[Christiane Fox]

Just to make sure that I understand the question, is it about the time from complaint to resolution or is it about the time to get an open work permit? I'm not quite sure I understand.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

It's in regard to the complaint process.

[Christiane Fox]

What we would probably see is that, if there's a large-scale investigation as a result of a tip or a complaint, it would take a significant amount of time, given the process involved in a full investigation. I can't cite those numbers in particular of the article that you're citing, but we can definitely come back to you with more specificity.