Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to appear before you today. My name is Paul Aldunate, and I serve as a senior manager of economic development for the City of Brampton. I am pleased to speak on behalf of our municipality and the employers, workers and communities we support. Brampton is one of Canada's fastest-growing and most diverse cities. More than half of our residents were born outside Canada, and immigration has been fundamental to our economic success. Newcomers have strengthened our labour force, launched businesses, driven innovation and supported growth in advanced manufacturing, logistics, food processing, health care, technology, aerospace and cybersecurity. As this committee studies how Canada can better attract, retain and empower global talent, I would like to offer a municipal perspective grounded in the realities we see every day.
I will begin with workforce stability and the risk of losing existing talent. Last year, the City of Brampton convened a round table with local employers, industry leaders and provincial partners to discuss immigration and workforce challenges. The message was clear: Immigration policy is economic policy. One Brampton manufacturer shared a striking statistic. Approximately 15% of their workforce is on expiring work permits. When combined with the 7% natural turnover most businesses experience, they are facing a potential 22% loss of staff within the next 18 months. This is not an isolated case. Multiple employers across Brampton reported similar numbers. They describe this as a return to COVID-era disruption, except that this time, the instability is avoidable. Losing trained, integrated workers at this scale would reduce efficiency, increase onboarding demands and create operational uncertainty at a time when businesses are trying to grow.
Employers also emphasize that unemployment levels do not solve the problem. In 2026, Ontario's unemployment rate ranged from 7% to 8%; in the Toronto CMA, which includes Brampton and the region of Peel, it was approximately 7.6%. Even with the higher unemployment rate, there are simply not enough available workers to replace the 22% loss. As one employer put it, the math doesn't work. Just as importantly, employers stress the loss of experience and complementary skill sets. Many temporary workers bring advanced international training that pairs effectively with Canadian-educated workers. These mixed teams have proven to be more productive than either group alone. Losing their workers means losing that synergy, that mentorship and that productivity, all of which directly benefit our local economy.
The second item is access to specialized global expertise. The challenge relates to securing short-term access to highly specialized international technicians. Several Brampton manufacturers rely on foreign experts to install, calibrate, maintain or train staff on advanced equipment. According to those businesses, recent regulatory changes have made it increasingly difficult to obtain approvals for these short-term visits. In some cases, machinery worth millions of dollars will remain idle because the required experience could not enter Canada.
A third item is aligning immigration policy with regional economic realities. Brampton's experience also highlights the importance of aligning immigration pathways with regional labour market conditions. Our city has the highest labour surplus of any major municipality in Canada. For decades, residential growth significantly outpaced employment growth. While Brampton is now one of the top job-attracting municipalities in the country, the sheer scale of our population and the pace of residential development has made it difficult to keep up. This history underscores a key point. Immigration policy cannot be separated from economic development policy. The challenge is not simply the number of workers available; it is ensuring that immigration pathways support investment, productivity and long-term economic growth in regions with very different labour market dynamics. From Brampton's perspective, the question is not whether Canada needs talent but whether our immigration system is responsive enough to regional realities and whether it enables employers and communities to fully utilize the talent already here.
The fourth item is supporting entrepreneurial immigration. Canada must also continue to attract and retain entrepreneurial talent. In Brampton, immigrant entrepreneurs have been essential to our economic growth. The city had invested in entrepreneurial infrastructure, including the BHive, a soft landing space and innovation space to support founders. Through this work, we've seen how immigrant entrepreneurs create jobs, attract investment and strengthen local innovation ecosystems. As the federal government considers the future of entrepreneurial immigration, we encourage the development of a modernized successor to the start-up visa program, one that is more responsive to regional needs and more closely integrated with local economic development networks.
The recommendations are as follows: One, increase Ontario's allocation under the provincial nominee program and provide greater flexibility to align immigration selection with regional labour market conditions and economic development priorities.
Two, establish streamlined pathways for specialized international experts who support manufacturing, technology transfer, equipment installation and workforce training.
Three, develop a modernized entrepreneurial immigration pathway that leverages local innovation ecosystems, including what we have here in Brampton called Brampton's BHive, to attract high-potential founders and support job creation in communities across Canada.