Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all of the witnesses for being present with us today. It's nice to see the Auditor General here.
Of course, this is a report about labour. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how ironic it is that we have an Office of the Auditor General where there's a strike happening right now, and we're talking about the conditions of labour here today. I wanted to point that out.
This report is deeply disappointing. It's another sad chapter in our history. We have to level with this. This is extreme. This report is damning. I want to make sure that we understand how we talk about these issues. These are people's lives. We are talking about people—fathers, mothers, children who don't get to see their parents, and they come back sick or sometimes dead. That's what we're talking about here.
This is deeply troubling for me. I have a very difficult time understanding how we can continue after so long.... This report states that these conditions were reported before the pandemic. There were investigations back in 2020: “In December 2020, we notified the Deputy Minister and senior officials at Employment and Social Development Canada that our audit had identified significant concerns with the quarantine inspections”.
How do we expect this accountability framework that we have in our country to actually yield results when we've been doing this...for how long? There were public accounts meetings on this previously. We have to find a way to resolve this. This is a serious issue.
I'm encouraged by Mr. Tremblay's comments related to massive reform. I think that's encouraging. I think we need massive reform. We need to understand that protection for labour is critical. If we're going to be a country that understands how labour works well, that values people, we have to understand that these folks deserve basic protections, basic-level protections—something that this report clearly identifies as not being sufficient for the workers.
I want to ask a question related to the OAG's report. I have a question on the consequences for employers who did not comply with the immigration and refugee protection regulations, including monetary penalties ranging from $1,000 to $1 million. How many employers were fined in 2020 and 2021, and in what amount?