Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 3rd, 2026

[Daniel Perry]

Definitely. What we see as very successful in the global talent stream are the referral partners. Something we recommend for the start-up visa program is to allow incubators, venture capitalists and others in the ecosystem to be more integrated into the process.

As it currently stands, IRCC is reviewing all the applications. With respect to the IRCC, they do many things very well, but understanding how business works, what innovation looks like and what will succeed are not always top on the list. Having private sectors come in and work with them will take a bit off the plate of the IRCC, combined with our other recommendations of temporary residency and moving that path forward to help reduce the burden on the system.

[Amandeep Sodhi, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

In your opening remarks, you also noted that approximately 850,000 Canadians live in the United States, including businesspeople and technical and industrial leaders. You've also suggested that Canada should consider a tax exemption modelled on the U.S. qualified small business stock exemption. Why do you believe that a similar measure would benefit Canada's innovation economy?

[Laurent Carbonneau]

That's a great question.

I mentioned the “missing” province, and I'll give you some personal background here. I grew up in the U.S. I'm Canadian by birth and chose to come back here, but lots of Canadians see huge opportunities south of the border, and the reality is that we are in a competition for talent with them each and every day. I think a lot of Canadians—and we can't blame them and can't think that's a bad move for them—see more opportunity for themselves on that side of the border than this one.

We need to see how we can be as attractive as the U.S. as a baseline for folks who are entrepreneurial, want to work hard, want to invest in Canada and want to build businesses here. Really, how should we be making ourselves a better place to grow and scale a business than the U.S.? It needs to be absolutely at the heart of how we approach any serious conversation around talent.

[Amandeep Sodhi, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

How would you respond to the concerns that this proposal could disproportionately benefit founders and investors rather than the broader workforce?

[Laurent Carbonneau]

Folks who are founders and investors are putting a lot of skin in the game. As I mentioned, we have to see the competition of the U.S. as our baseline and the water we're swimming in. If we aren't really taking that seriously, we're going to lose out on a generation of entrepreneurial talent. It's a huge loss for us economically, especially when data-driven and IP-driven businesses generate such huge returns for their home economies.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Ms. Sodhi.

Thank you, Mr. Carbonneau.

Mr. Beaulieu, you now have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Carbonneau, in your opinion, is the problem with highly specialized labour related to recruitment or retention?

[Laurent Carbonneau]

That's a great question.

I think both of those aspects are possible. We definitely have a recruitment problem at the national level.

As I said, in general, when we look at all the specialized fields and sub-fields related to research, engineering and so on, we see one thing. We just don't have enough graduates in Canada to fill the labour shortages across the country. I don't think it's really feasible, so we have to look elsewhere.

It's also due to the fact that we are losing a lot of young Canadians in particular. We also lose people in mid-career or late-career. They go to the United States or elsewhere because they find the conditions there more attractive. Both sides see this as a very serious problem.

As I said, comparing the situation to the United States is not always fair, but that's the comparison people make every day to decide whether they're going to live here or move there.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

A lot of the recruitment actually has to be done by the companies themselves.

How could the federal government help significantly improve recruitment?

[Laurent Carbonneau]

That's a very good question.

The global talent stream program works quite well, but not always perfectly. We have sometimes seen cases of researchers or engineers who wait a very long time before receiving government approval for their application. It doesn't happen very often, but it does happen. Generally speaking, if the program were working at full capacity, it would be a real asset for Canada.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Thank you.

Mr. Parker, you said that temporary workers work with fake documents.

What do you think would be the best way to combat this problem?

[Terry Parker]

The best means of countering that problem is to have a universal safety standard right across the country. That way, we could actually prove it. Right now, you have different safety companies from different provinces all producing different tickets that are supposed to be enforced. However, there's no Canadian authentication on safety standards. On the Red Seal there is, and when we saw a fake Red Seal ticket come through, we knew right away that it was fake. What we need is a universal safety standard for all of Canada. It would help the situation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Mr. Parker.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu.

Next we have five minutes for Mr. Davies.

[Fred Davies, Conservative, Niagara South, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Carbonneau and Mr. Perry, I want to dig a bit into the SUV program. You've mentioned it a few times today.

You mentioned in your comments that the program has rigid upfront requirements. Can you elaborate on that briefly?

[Laurent Carbonneau]

Is that the start-up visa?

[Fred Davies, Conservative, Niagara South, ON]

Yes.

[Laurent Carbonneau]

Essentially, the problem with the start-up visa, which I've hinted at, is that because we've set up a pathway to permanent residency right off the bat, we're creating a huge incentive for people to apply even if they don't really meet the requirements. That requires....

I see you have a follow-up question.

[Fred Davies, Conservative, Niagara South, ON]

They have to meet the requirements because they go through designated organizations, incubators or angel investment funds where the due diligence is done and letters of support are granted.

[Laurent Carbonneau]

Indeed.

[Fred Davies, Conservative, Niagara South, ON]

I'm trying to get to the words you said. They go through due diligence before they come to Canada, so while it is a pathway to residency, they have determined, to a large degree, the commercial viability of their concepts. Is that correct?

[Laurent Carbonneau]

To be clear, our members are usually more established companies and aren't availing themselves of this directly. What we heard from the ecosystem is that the backlog at IRCC that this program generated basically made it unworkable. What—

[Fred Davies, Conservative, Niagara South, ON]

Was that backlog a result of too many qualified companies or IRCC not being able to go through the application process, or were there other problems, such as, for example, designated organizations that were effectively selling letters of support?

[Laurent Carbonneau]

Without having any evidence of option C, I would probably point to option B. I think they didn't have the capacity and were applying very strict scrutiny standards because of what was on offer.

I take your point around the organizations. I haven't heard any allegations to that effect.

[Fred Davies, Conservative, Niagara South, ON]

I've heard lots.

[Laurent Carbonneau]

Yes, that's a very good question.