Industry Committee on June 17th, 2022

[Greg Peterson]

At Statistics Canada, we do periodically change.... The CPI is essentially a sort of weighted average of a basket of goods consumed by Canadian households. Over time, this basket changes. One reason it could change is that there are commodities that may have existed in the past that don't exist anymore—I think of DVDs or video cassette tapes—and there's the introduction of new commodities like the Internet or cellphones. The composition of the basket is continually updated.

In terms of the weights that are applied over the course of the pandemic, we decided to increase the frequency of those updates so that we could better reflect the change in consumption patterns in Canadian households.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Great—

[Greg Peterson]

That's not a change in the methodology per se, but rather a change in the weights that we apply to the various commodities that feed into the CPI.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you.

Based on that, if you have continually been changing the weights of the different commodities and the different items, is that something that you would be able to table for this committee? How many times have you done it, particularly since 2020 and up to the most recent change you made?

[Greg Peterson]

Yes. That information is contained in the report we released earlier this week, and we'll make the link available to the committee.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you very much.

One of the other things I wanted to ask about is credit card interchange fees. Many small businesses I speak to tell me that, with more cashless transactions, they're paying more in interchange fees than ever before.

Can you table for the committee any statistics you may have on what small businesses are paying? That's not only on interchange fees, because we know what the baseline is, but do you have any information on all of the fees that would be related to what a business, and a small business in particular, would pay for their full credit card transaction processing?

[Greg Peterson]

I'm not certain that we collect information on those fee statements for small businesses.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Okay. Thank you very much.

I will direct my next questions to Mr. van Raalte from the Treasury Board.

Thank you for being here.

In early 2015, the former government passed the Red Tape Reduction Act. In your opening statement, you mentioned the one-for-one law, which is to ensure that regulators remove one regulation for every new regulation. Is this something that is currently being enforced by the department?

[James van Raalte]

Yes, it is, absolutely. It's the law. Not only is it being enforced, but we report on it on an annual basis and that report is public.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

That's great. Thank you.

Previously—

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

I'm sorry. We're out of time.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

We'll now move to Madame Lapointe for six minutes.

[Viviane LaPointe, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My questions are for the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.

Throughout this study, we've heard that immigration is seen as a potential mitigator of labour shortage challenges, which seem to be pervasive across all sectors but particularly for SMEs.

My riding is in northern Ontario. The rural and northern immigration pilot program is very popular amongst employers. Every time we have a round table with the chamber or with SMEs, they tell us that it is a vital component of their ability to continue to operate. The pilot program is scheduled to end in October of this year. I want to know if there is a plan to make this program permanent.

[Philip Somogyvari]

Thank you for the question.

I don't have a specific answer with respect to whether or not the rural and northern immigration pilot will become permanent. What I can say is that, given the time it started, we've been slowly able to ramp up admissions and incorporate new regions into the pilot itself. We clearly will need to have some time to be able to review the program and to watch the functioning of the program.

What I can say is that the department is monitoring this very closely. Based on the ongoing review, as we move towards the end of the pilot, there will likely be advice given as to whether to extend this pilot further.

[Viviane LaPointe, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

In the reviews you've done to date, is it your assessment that the pilot program has achieved what it was designed to do?

[Philip Somogyvari]

Again, I can say, going back to when the pilot was launched—in other words, up to and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and despite those challenges—we've already had 755 admissions since its launch. That may not seem like a lot, but given that this is a pilot program and given the time it started, these are very encouraging signals.

As I said, we'll continue to monitor it, and we hope to see further admissions through the pilot.

[Viviane LaPointe, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

The federal budget of 2021 invested over $430 million to develop and deliver an enterprise-wide digital platform so that it could gradually replace IRCC's global case management system, with the goal of improving application processing and support for applicants.

Can you provide the committee today with an update on the development and implementation of this program?

[Philip Somogyvari]

With respect to the platform modernization initiative, I don't have specific knowledge. However, I can say that there has been quite a lot of development in being able to scope out the requirements and what the department would need or want to have operationalized through the new platform. There have also been significant engagements with industry to start getting a sense of what the new platform needs to do and to build it for the future.

In the meantime, we'll continue to try to update and get the most flexibility out of the global case management system as possible, because in terms of ultimately implementing platform modernization, there's still a way to go. Therefore, in parallel, the department continues to digitize and modernize its processes and get the most it can out of the GCMS.

[Viviane LaPointe, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

With immigration accounting for almost 100% of Canada's labour force growth and with Canada facing critical labour shortages—again, I hear that a lot in many sectors in my riding—how can we assist SMEs in accessing labour through our immigration system?

[Philip Somogyvari]

In terms of how we can assist, the department is trying to make strides in how it engages and interacts with clients by providing as much information as possible. Some of what we're trying to do involves having better tools and resources on our websites and trying to have more contact with and hear from SMEs and other stakeholders to get a sense of what their needs are. There are also some facilitative mechanisms.

For instance, one of the innovations that was put in place was the dedicated service channel that has referrals of growth enterprises in Canada that seek top skilled foreign national talent. That's one of the other ideas in this sort of gloved service. It's to be able to give more assistance to SMEs, among others, and high-growth firms to help them navigate through the immigration process.

The other thing I'll say is that work is ongoing, including through client experience and interaction with clients, to be able to simplify application forms, for instance. When possible, we take those learnings and simplify the processes at the front end.

[Viviane LaPointe, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

We hear a lot about the shortage of skilled labour. I'm wondering if there's any kind of dialogue at the ministry about being strategic in our immigration approaches to specifically address those skilled labour shortages. I'm thinking about the pathways that were created that really helped us with personal support workers, which were really essential, especially during COVID in our long-term care system.

[Philip Somogyvari]

Yes. Thank you for the question.

Indeed, I would refer to the temporary to permanent immigration stream, which was particularly useful during the border closures last year in being able to retain those temporary workers, particularly in essential occupations, and for students and graduates in being able to apply for permanent residence and remain in Canada.

I would mention as well some of the thinking we're doing in terms of targeting our economic immigration to meet the needs of the labour market. As was recently introduced in the Senate, our amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act permit the minister, upon consultation and in order to achieve an economic goal, to be able to conduct category-based rounds within express entry. What this essentially means is that, to provide more specificity in pinpointing and selecting those with particular attributes, including particular occupations, it's inviting them to apply for permanent residence in express entry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Lemire, the floor is yours for six minutes.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the witness for his presentation, which was very instructive.

My question will be for the representatives of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.

In the July 10, 2021, issue of the Canada Gazette, we learned that the department was doing all sorts of verifications in connection with the labour market impact assessment, or LMIA, process. Contrary to what we might think, a lot of inspections are done that have absolutely nothing to do with making sure that no Canadian can do the work of an immigrant. Over 47,200 enterprises are small enterprises, and each of them is having to deal with the difficulties and delays involved in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. This doesn't make sense.

The government is simply passing the costs of inspections associated with the LMIA process off to enterprises. It is certainly possible to do things differently and not make the enterprises cover the costs associated with the delays it causes. While applications pile up in offices, billions of dollars in revenue are slipping through our fingers.

Representatives of Quebec Manufacturers and Exporters testified before the committee and told us that revenue lost by businesses amounted to almost $18 billion. However, there is nothing in the LMIA process that prevents things from being done differently once immigrants arrive here.

Do you think suspending the LMIA process could be considered, at least for applications concerning workers in Quebec?