Evidence of meeting #19 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was claimants.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Professor Worswick, we don't have much time, so let's hop right into it.
I read with interest a mainstream media article last fall about temporary foreign workers in which you were quoted quite a few times. The article said you raised the concern about the “growing reliance on temporary workers [having] long-term consequences, including wage suppression.”
Can you elaborate on how the TFW program can suppress wages?
Professor, Department of Economics, Carleton University, As an Individual
Concerning the temporary foreign worker program, the way it's supposed to work is that a firm advertises a job. If they advertise a job at the market wage rate and they're unsuccessful, they can ask the federal government to bring in a temporary foreign worker. This seems innocuous, but the reality is that job searches fail all the time, and this could lead to a situation whereby.... There's an incredible supply, sadly, of lower-wage workers around the world who are willing to come, so one could think of it as flattening the labour supply curve, effectively, through that.
The other thing that could happen is that firms could anticipate this, because temporary foreign workers tend to be older than teenage workers in Canada, and they care a lot more about the job. If they lose the job, they probably have to go back to their home country—whereas an immigrant, for example, a permanent resident, can move to another job in Canada. There's a power imbalance.
Our research suggests that this type of program is likely to lead to lower wage offers by firms.
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
A spoiler alert is that, at the end of the article, you had a recommendation about what should be done with the temporary foreign worker program.
Would you like to elaborate on that today?
Professor, Department of Economics, Carleton University, As an Individual
We should eliminate the temporary foreign worker program. We should have permanent immigration, and the economic component should be focused on high-income individuals. Then we should train permanent residents and Canadian citizens to do other jobs if there are shortages.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dzerowicz
Thank you, Professor.
Thank you, Mr. Kram.
The last two minutes go to you, Ms. Tesser Derksen.
Liberal
Kristina Tesser Derksen Liberal Milton East—Halton Hills South, ON
Thanks so much, Madam Chair.
Thanks, everyone, for letting me sit in as a guest and indulging me by allowing me to ask a question.
Mr. Oldman, you mentioned in your opening remarks that you had two recommendations. One of them was—and I'm paraphrasing—to transform the levels plan so that it becomes more holistic.
Could you expand a bit on what you meant by that?
Chief Executive Officer, Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia
Yes. Thank you for the opportunity.
The levels plan process today takes in a lot of feedback, but we're hearing conversations across communities and across different sectors that a longer-term, cross-government process could be considered, one that is—and you've heard this from other witnesses at other meetings as well—coordinating the line across government, not just IRCC, the different immigration streams are complementary in alignment and there's a more structured and influential whole-of-society input into levels planning.
Right now, there is extensive consultation done by IRCC, but it's not a whole-of-government or a whole-of-society process. What we see in the coverage and the communication of the levels plan is that it's frequently reduced to two numbers. One of the recommendations in our “the Canada we believe in” initiative sets much clearer strategic objectives for different economic, humanitarian and other streams of immigration.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dzerowicz
I think that's time.
Thank you so much, Ms. Tesser Derksen and Mr. Oldman.
I want to thank all the witnesses for both their time and their important contributions. Based on this excellent conversation, there may be some additional things you want to submit to the committee. I encourage all three of you to do that. Thanks again.
Before we adjourn—because I know that Monsieur Brunelle-Duceppe wants to run out the door—for your information, version two of the draft report for the international student study should be distributed on Friday, February 20. In order to have time to review, we're scheduling the first meeting to review it on Wednesday, February 25. We plan to invite witnesses for the immigration study between now and then.
I just wanted to make sure you know that this is the current proposal.
With that, it is now 6:30.
This meeting is adjourned.