Thank you.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to present the position of FERME on closed work permits.
I think the work permits work. There isn't a problem with the work permits. I think that what makes a lot of headlines is the lack of a pathway for temporary foreign workers, especially in agriculture or in low-wage sectors, to have access to permanent residency. I think that's where a lot of the problems are in the news. As I mentioned in my notes, a lot of the workers we bring to Quebec to the farms come for temporary periods. The average is about 22 weeks. That's the need of the employers in agricultural farms. It's a very specific time that they require the workers for.
These workers help so that thousands of families can have fresh produce of good quality in their houses. Thousands of companies, of farms, are able to continue producing in and developing the rural areas of Quebec. It also helps thousands of workers and their families improve their livelihoods in their countries.
In FERME, we try to bring in workers for an average of eight months and have recurring workers for companies that require workers for a year or two years. We prefer to have them come for eight months and then have rotations of workers. The main reason the workers come to Canada is to improve the livelihoods of their families. The workers are away from their households for many months over many years. We don't think it's a good way to help the workers or their families. I think eight months should be enough. That's why temporary work permits work for us.
In the sense that the closed work permits force our workers to stay at the farms, I think the government has already put in place mechanisms to help these workers who find themselves in a bad situation to change an employer now, with the new open work permit for vulnerable workers. Also, in the SAWP program, there is the possibility that if the government agent feels that the employee is not in a good position, they could request that Service Canada make a change for the worker. I think there are options for the workers to be in a better position if they need to be.
Also, there's something that wasn't discussed. In the case where there is a closed work permit for a specific sector, if an employee comes to Quebec and then decides he doesn't want to stay at the farm, how will he be able to change? How will the employer, who pays the plane ticket to bring him over, be reimbursed? Is he going to be reimbursed? Can anybody just decide that maybe the next farm is going to give him a dollar more and that's a sufficient reason to change employers? Those things need to be considered if we're going to move forward into an open work permit on a sectoral basis.
Thank you very much.