Evidence of meeting #84 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 employers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Legal Coordinator, Réseau d'aide aux travailleuses et travailleurs migrants agricoles du Québec
As regards the cartels—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, thank you.
Ms. Kwan, you have two and a half minutes. Please go ahead.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you.
I want to continue with Ms. Gagnon.
You were talking earlier about employees getting blacklisted. If you make a complaint, you get blacklisted. That's something we've heard from other witnesses as well. From that perspective, with this whole concept of filing a complaint, while in theory it's supposed to work, in reality it's fraught with problems. Do you have any suggestions for the government on how to address that issue?
Vice-President, Board of Directors, Réseau d'aide aux travailleuses et travailleurs migrants agricoles du Québec
We're trying to build alliances. I know that we have colleagues upstream, in Mexico or Guatemala, who are monitoring the situation and negotiating ethnic selection systems with the governments. The Vérité organization's program in Mexico is an example of that.
However, we can never really get a handle on the problem because it gets hard to provide evidence since we don't have access to all the information.
I'd just like to add that we aren't involved in the sectoral permits pilot project in Quebec. So the evaluation has to be nuanced because you really have to see how it works in reality. Remember that the Canada-Quebec accord in 1978 didn't address the closed permits issue. For us, this is a new feature in the landscape that we have to deal with and that entails some problems.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Canada used to have a program that brought in workers with a full range of skills. From what the NOC code considers a low skill to what is considered high skill, a whole range of skilled workers were brought to Canada with permanent resident status. They've done away with that. Now it's primarily focused on the so-called higher skill levels, even though these workers you're talking about are essential workers.
Would you advocate or support the call for the government to bring back an immigration policy for permanent resident status for the full range of skill sets that Canada needs for our labour market?
Vice-President, Board of Directors, Réseau d'aide aux travailleuses et travailleurs migrants agricoles du Québec
Yes, I would completely support that call. We think we have to improve the pathway to permanent residence. Furthermore, people who want to work in the regions often want to stay there. That's a fact that we've observed. A member of our board who worked in Rimouski and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean wants to live in the regions because that's where he learned his French and made his friends.
We don't think that kind of mobility is a problem. On the contrary, it also looks to me like a recognized fundamental right. And Canada has signed all the labour mobility agreements.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Thank you, Ms. Kwan.
On behalf of the committee members, as the chair, I would like to thank Mr. Chambers, Mr. Pilon, Madame Gagnon and Mr. Borja Torres for being here and sharing important information with us. Thank you.
We will suspend the meeting for a few minutes before we go to an in camera meeting.
[Proceedings continue in camera]