Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 3rd, 2026

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

Have you never seen asylum seekers or highly skilled workers who had trouble finding a job because their credentials were not recognized?

[Laurent Carbonneau]

I would say no, not to my knowledge among our membership.

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

Okay.

Do you think changes could be made to the existing program to give better results? If so, what would they be?

[Laurent Carbonneau]

Absolutely.

In the context of the start-up visa in particular, this is where we have seen more difficulties. From what we hear, the global talent stream works reasonably well most of the time. I accept that government programs are never going to be batting a thousand, so that's okay. We can always do a bit better.

On the start-up visa, there was a serious problem where demand greatly outstripped IRCC's capacity to actually analyze the applications. As I mentioned, that's very much a consequence of it being tied to permanent residency. In a situation where that isn't the case, you're going to see a much more measured uptake. There will be a much more realistic uptake for IRCC to manage and also for us to process.

If I have a granular suggestion, it would be to do that. It would be a huge improvement to the program. It would help us bring entrepreneurs here who then may very well choose to make their lives in Canada. We could actually get them through the door first.

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

My next question is for Terry Parker.

You said you were in favour of using temporary workers, but only in periods when there is a real shortage of resources. Do you think that's what's happening, or are there too many temporary workers?

I imagine that the issue of credential recognition concerns them less, but what do you think? What is the situation?

[Terry Parker]

We see temporary foreign workers on construction sites on a daily basis, but what we're seeing a bit more of, as I said, are undocumented workers who are also coming in through illegal means into Alberta.

We are looking for more oversight so we know that everyone is being monitored and followed out there and that people are not being mistreated, are getting paid fair rates of pay and are being protected.

We're not against bringing in new Canadians. We want to make sure that everything is documented and being done above board and that everyone is being treated fairly throughout the construction industry. I was talking to my counterparts, and today it's happening from B.C. right across to the Maritimes. We are seeing a misuse of the temporary foreign worker program.

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

In your sector, have you ever seen something like Drivers Inc., where drivers are given fake driver's licences? That causes all kinds of problems, including cases of dangerous driving.

Does that kind of thing happen in your sector?

[Terry Parker]

We've seen something similar to that where people are coming to sites with cards and safety credentials that were not actually issued by a safety provider. They are forgeries. We're seeing forgeries happen. We've also seen forgeries happen for Red Seal tickets for some of the trades. It doesn't happen all the time, but we are seeing it on some of the major industrial sites across Alberta.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Mr. Parker.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu.

We will begin our second round, which is for five minutes.

Mr. Ho, we'll begin with you for five minutes.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

My first questions are for Mr. Terry Parker.

Your organization warned that the temporary foreign worker program and the use of undocumented foreign workers, sometimes even workers using fraudulent documents, have contributed to wage suppression in the trades, descaling of trades work and weaker workplace protections. Those are some pretty serious warnings.

Could you share with this committee some stories that you're hearing on the ground?

[Terry Parker]

In one situation, we had a number of people coming in from South America—if I'm not mistaken, it was Colombia—to work in the country. They came in on tourist visas and as tourists and then worked in Alberta. One of those individuals got hurt and came to our office. He had twisted his arm or cut his arm in some way, and he had been sitting in a hotel room.

Finally, the employer, who didn't want to deal with it because he didn't have workers' compensation, decided to ship this individual back. Later we heard that he actually lost his arm because of a workplace injury that was not treated because the employer did not want the individual going to a hospital, did not want to report it to workers' compensation and decided the best thing to do was to ship this individual out of the country.

This is an extreme situation, but there are individuals who get hurt on job sites throughout the year. Some of them are undocumented and some of them are temporary foreign workers who are not legally supposed to be working in the construction industry. They do get hurt on these sites. We do hear these types of stories. We heard about that situation directly from the individual as well, so it was not from a third party that we were hearing it. It was directly from the individual.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

This is pretty damning.

When employers can access cheap temporary foreign labour and sometimes even access undocumented workers or foreign workers who using fake documentation, does that reduce pressure to raise wages and reduce incentives to hire Canadians?

[Terry Parker]

It definitely does.

When our contractors are competing with other contractors who are charging half of or a third less than that of our contractors, obviously a contract is going to go to the contractor who is charging less and is using undocumented or inappropriate temporary foreign workers.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

It's very troubling to hear the stories on the ground.

The Liberals' latest press release on their costly credit card budget says that they are investing in skilled trades. Is there a contradiction in telling young Canadians to pursue the trades while simultaneously allowing employers to bypass them through temporary and sometimes even illegal labour streams?

[Terry Parker]

Both the Building Trades of Alberta and the government are investing in trying to bring in more apprentices. We see a lot of retirements happening. We see a lot of projects being proposed that will happen in the future. Obviously, we are projecting.

However, in the current situation, there is not as much work as expected. We want the situation to get better. We want to have more young Canadians working in the trades. We want to have more indigenous people and want to see more women, and we obviously want to see even more new Canadians working in the construction industry, but that's not the current situation. Sure, we need to train, but the system is balanced for when the work happens. We'll then be able to bring more people in. We need more jobs in the construction sector before we start bringing more people into the construction sector.

Yes, we need to invest in it, but we have to do it at scale as well.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

It's a pretty simple concept to put Canadians first.

My next set of questions is for Mr. Perry and Mr. Carbonneau

The Liberal government keeps using words like “talent attraction”, but we've seen the Liberals flood our economy with low-skilled labour in recent years. Are you confident that there are enough safeguards in place to ensure that employers who use the immigration stream that attracts high-skilled workers have adequately exhausted their search for Canadian workers before resorting to foreign skilled labour, especially when the companies are headquartered elsewhere?

[Laurent Carbonneau]

I'll take that question, really quickly.

I would say that in general, we are broadly satisfied with the state of the global talent stream. From a broader economic perspective, I would say that it definitely does hurt to have Amazon and others as very heavy users of these programs. Especially when we're competing globally on talent, it doesn't seem as though the federal government—

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Do you think Canadian-owned companies and Canadian-headquartered companies should have priority?

[Laurent Carbonneau]

I definitely think so, yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you so much, Mr. Ho.

Thank you, Mr. Carbonneau.

Next we have five minutes for Ms. Sodhi.

[Amandeep Sodhi, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today.

My first question is for you, Mr. Parker.

As Canada's new government works to invest in major infrastructure projects across the country to ultimately grow a stronger economy, what recommendations do you have in terms of how Canada's immigration system can better complement federal investments in apprenticeships and domestic training to ensure we have the workforce necessary to build these major projects?

[Terry Parker]

We definitely want to see investment happening in young people. We want to see investment happening in Canadians, but there needs to be oversight. There need to be audits happening, and there needs to be monitoring of the system currently.

We don't need to be bringing in temporary and foreign workers when we have high unemployment rates among young people and among Canadians. We need to be focused, and we need to build Canada. There's no question about that, but we need to do this with a balanced approach.

[Amandeep Sodhi, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

Thank you for your answer.

I'll go to Mr. Perry or Mr. Carbonneau, whoever would like to answer, since you guys are from the same organization.

You mentioned in your opening remarks that around 70% of Canadian tech businesses cite a shortage of skilled workers as a major barrier to their success. What does that mean in practical terms for Canadian start-ups and scale-ups trying to compete globally? Part two of that question is, what opportunities are being lost because these positions can't be filled?

[Daniel Perry]

You are right that one of the challenges our members face is finding the right talent at the right time. When they're unable to access it, they simply leave. When you can't find the right people to build your business, you take your business elsewhere where you have the environment to allow you to build and be successful.

The global talent stream has been a very useful tool to not only find highly skilled individuals but to also get them through the immigration process in a timely manner so they're able to contribute. We recently saw someone who was successful in hiring another software developer, and that's allowing them to scale here. They've been able to increase their revenue, and they've been able to hire more Canadians, so it really does have a positive effect.

[Amandeep Sodhi, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

Do you believe there are any key lessons the government can take from the global talent stream that can inform the overall talent attraction strategy we have?