Thank you, Madam Chair.
I represent WUSC, a global development organization headquartered in Canada that aims to catalyze positive education and economic opportunities for young people. Since our founding over 100 years ago, we have had a consistent focus on addressing the unique education and economic needs of refugees and displaced people. In Canada, we support refugee resettlement through education and employment pathways, including through our flagship student refugee program, which is now in its 48th year.
Today I will focus on our support for labour mobility pathways for skilled refugees to relocate to Canada to strengthen our economy. These are not temporary pathways. All individuals arrive in Canada as permanent residents. I will speak to what we have learned, the opportunities we see and our recommendations for the government.
In brief, our experience has demonstrated that supporting smart, targeted labour mobility for refugee populations is a classic win-win. It enables Canada to fill critical labour gaps while providing a durable solution to refugee populations with few other options. It allows Canada to deliver on the pledges it made at the Global Refugee Forum in 2023, while also strengthening our economy. I'd like to provide two examples.
First, under the economic mobility pathways pilot, WUSC has been supporting the tourism and hospitality sector in western Canada to address critical labour shortages by connecting employers with refugee talent. Through consultations with employers, we heard a consistent message: Businesses, especially in rural and remote communities, struggle to find stable, year-round workers. Resort communities have traditionally relied on temporary labour, but employers emphasize the need for a more consistent workforce to sustain growth in the sector. There has been limited availability and interest of Canadians to fill these roles, leaving persistent gaps in a key economic sector.
Since 2020, we have matched more than 100 refugee youth from Kenya and Malawi with tourism and hospitality jobs across B.C. and Alberta. The results have been significant. Employers report retention rates of over 90% after one year, dramatically reducing recruitment and training costs while improving workforce stability and performance.
One example is Ramla, originally from Burundi. She spent years in limbo in refugee camps without access to employment. In 2023, she arrived in Canada and began working as a housekeeper in Tofino. The opportunity gave her financial stability, independence and a path forward through permanent residency. Within a short time frame, she was promoted to front desk agent. Her employer has become a champion of the EMPP, noting that it has created a wealth of benefits for the team, their leaders and the company as a whole.
The second example I'd like to provide is in Nova Scotia, where we are working with provincial regulators, employers and Dalhousie University to address the critical shortage of pharmacists in the province. We identified a group of trained Syrian pharmacists living as refugees in Jordan and supported the creation of a streamlined licensure pathway so they could work in Canada. As a result, these professionals moved from arrival to full licensure in approximately three months, as compared with the typical two- to three-year time frame.
This demonstrates a simple but powerful point that applies across sectors: It's not the lack of talent that is the problem; it's the alignment of systems of immigration, credential recognition and labour markets. When those systems work together, labour shortages can be addressed quickly and effectively. Refugee talent becomes a powerful part of Canada's economic strategy.
I have three recommendations for the government.
First, we welcome IRCC's commitment to making the economic mobility pathways pilot a permanent program, while we also acknowledge that it needs adjustment in order to function in the reliable manner that employers reasonably require. This includes a commitment to processing permanent residency applications within a six-month time frame and streamlining the application process by allocating a predetermined number of spaces under the program to trusted partners. This will ensure predictable intake and avoid system delays.
My second recommendation is that, while the EMPP is an important pathway that should be sustained, federal and provincial governments should ensure that existing immigration pathways are accessible to refugee populations. Working through such initiatives as the provincial nominee program or the francophone community immigration pilot also provides significant potential. The two conditions that are essential for these pathways to work effectively are a processing time of six months or less to build employer confidence and a flexibility on settlement fund requirements, which many refugees cannot meet.
Third, we encourage stronger coordination across federal departments, whose collaboration would accelerate this work. Global Affairs Canada, ESDC and the regional development agencies all play a role in necessary systems alignment. There is, for example, a real and pragmatic opportunity to leverage overseas training, funded by GAC, to support Canadian labour needs.
Refugee labour mobility is not a humanitarian initiative. It is a practical economic strategy driven by provincial and employer needs and the skills of talented individuals who just happen to be refugees in need of a fresh start. It is an economic cake with humanitarian icing.
Thank you.