Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 22nd, 2026

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Has PSW wage growth fallen behind inflation right now?

[Jodi Hall]

When we look at compensation models in long-term care homes, the sectors we represent are almost exclusively unionized, with negotiated contracts in place. I can say that there are jurisdictions where there is wage parity, but there are negotiated contracts otherwise.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Would you support making LMIA approval in long-term care conditional on wages at or above the occupation's provincial median, adjusted for inflation every year?

[Jodi Hall]

I think that would be very difficult to agree to, simply because there are negotiated contracts in place that may not follow the same timelines.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Do you think your employers would be supportive of that, or is that something they would push back on in collective bargaining?

[Jodi Hall]

I think it would be very difficult for the employers to agree, simply because of timelines of contracts. They do receive funding through provincial governments, so there would have to be a tie-in.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I guess what I'm trying to get at is, when we have employer groups come in front of us and ask for higher levels of temporary workers, that there be some sort of safeguard to prevent wage suppression. I'd ask you to take that back to your members, because we're trying to do something that resembles work here.

Would you support a recommendation to put a share of LMIA fees into a fund for training young Canadians as PSWs?

[Jodi Hall]

We're absolutely supportive of domestic pathways to develop the workforce. If that were an identified pathway, there wouldn't be a strong objection, although we would like to see deep consideration for the labour market impact assessment and how it affects the long-term care sector. It does create a tremendous administrative burden, but we would be interested in talking about other opportunities for workforce development domestically.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

It does create an administrative burden, but it also, in theory, prevents fraud. Isn't that right?

[Jodi Hall]

I understand that position, but certainly in our sector's experience and in what we hear across the country, it has created far more challenges and has been more of a burden to a sector that already has tremendously limited resources. We would like to see a streamlining of that effort.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

How about a recommendation for a requirement that employers show real investment in domestic recruitment and paid training, such as something like an earn-while-you-learn placement before an LMIA is approved? Would your employers and your association support that?

[Jodi Hall]

We do have a position that we call “work-integrated learning”. There are already some tremendous innovative models that are happening across the country. I would point to one in British Columbia that's called HCAP, and there are other models that use an apprenticeship earn-and-learn model.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I have just a few seconds left, and there's one thing that I really want to get on the record, which is this: Would you support a recommendation for IRCC and Statistics Canada to track how many people got permanent residence through care sector streams who are still in the occupation, and then to report that to Parliament? What often happens is that we hear you need it, but then somebody comes in and might go to another stream.

Would you accept that recommendation, particularly as a retention metric?

[Jodi Hall]

Yes. We already can see, in a StatsCan report from August of 2025, that they report some evidence on permanent residency. They've noted that with temporary foreign workers and others working in long-term care, there is a 50% retention rate after five years for those who obtain permanent residency, but we would certainly welcome an opportunity to see that metric continue.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Ms. Hall.

Thank you, Ms. Rempel Garner.

Mr. Zuberi, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I really want to thank the witnesses for being here today.

I will start with Concordia. I'm a Concordia alumnus and proud graduate. A lot of what I do today actually started from my path while in university as a student involved in student leadership. I just wanted to really thank the university for creating an environment that help people enter into the real world, as was the slogan back then. I'm sure it's still the motto of the university. I'm so happy to see both of you here, Provost and Ms. Foisy.

I'd like to start off with the supports you have for international students. Have they evolved over the decades? I went to the university. It was about 2004 or so when I graduated. Have they evolved over the decades? What supports do you give, and how do they compare and contrast with Canadian students? The first question is on the evolution and how they compare and contrast.

[Effrosyni Diamantoudi]

The numbers of international students at Concordia have changed over the years, primarily because the institution we are has changed over the years. Concordia is a young institution. It just turned 50 years old. It started as a primarily undergraduate institution, and we've developed our research capacity over the years. That alone changed the population of international students within Concordia.

The support we offer to international students is that of integrating them into the Canadian society and the Quebec society in particular.

Thanks to the French-learning program, we are able to better integrate our students into Quebec society and the labour market.

There's a lot of support. I will let Julie speak about the integration into the labour market in particular through our work-integrated learning.

[Julie Foisy]

Ultimately, the student support that's offered to students wouldn't differ necessarily. Apart from francization, for international versus domestic students, we see a student as a student. In terms of co-ops, there is the support. As for the francization, as I said in my remarks, we support the connection into the labour market—understanding how to share their skills with employers and prepare, and understanding the Quebec labour market and how language may play into that. Ultimately, student supports for domestic and international are the same.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you for that.

I'd just like to note, Madam Provost, that I saw in your biography that you were once upon a time an international student. Econometrics is your domain.

[Effrosyni Diamantoudi]

It's game theory, actually.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

That's cool. I have a math degree, pure and applied. I've never studied game theory but set theory and other logic.

[Effrosyni Diamantoudi]

Indeed, I arrived in Canada in 1991 as an international student, studied at University of Ottawa, continued at McGill, fell in love with the country and married a political refugee. Now I'm raising a proud quadrilingual Canadian.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

There you go. Amazing. I'm sure there's a lot of game theory in this space here.

I'd like to go to Mr. Usmani.

Thank you for joining us by Zoom or whatever application we're using nowadays. It is Zoom.

In any case, you said something interesting in your remarks. You mentioned that other countries look to Canada as a successful model. You also had some cautionary points and some points where we should make some updates. On that first concept of looking to us as a successful model, can you share what you have noted from the sector that other countries see Canada as being successful within when it comes to immigration?

[Saad Usmani]

Certainly.

Part of it is the predictability of the immigration streams over the past decade or so. The welcoming nature and the multicultural aspect of Canada as well is what has made Canada something that other countries look at, even within Europe, as an example where integration is relatively successful, where immigrants can come and enjoy an opportunity and students can study.