Public Accounts Committee on March 31st, 2022

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 12 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108, the committee is meeting today on “Report 13: Health and Safety of Agricultural Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada During the COVID‑19 Pandemic”.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the order of November 25, 2021. Members are attending in person in the room and remotely using the Zoom application.

Given the directive of the Board of Internal Economy on March 10, 2022, all those attending the meeting in person must wear a mask, except when the member is seated at their place during parliamentary proceedings.

To ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules to follow.

Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. If you are on the video conference, please click on the microphone icon to unmute yourself. When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute.

Interpretation is available. For those on Zoom, you have the choice, at the bottom of your screen, of floor, English or French. For those in the room, you can use the earpiece and select the desired channel. As a reminder, all comments should be addressed through the chair.

Honourable members, if you are participating in person and would like to speak, please raise your hand. If you are participating remotely using the Zoom application, please use the “raise hand” feature. With regard to a speaking list, the committee clerk and I will do the best we can to maintain consolidated order of speaking for all members, whether they are participating virtually or in person. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

In accordance with our routine motion, I'm informing the committee that all witnesses have completed the required connection tests in advance of the meeting.

I would now like to welcome our witnesses.

From the Office of the Auditor General, we have Karen Hogan, Auditor General of Canada, and David Normand, principal.

From the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food, we have Chris Forbes, deputy minister.

From the Department of Employment and Social Development, we have Jean-François Tremblay, deputy minister; Lori MacDonald, senior associate deputy minister of employment and social development, and chief operating officer for Service Canada; Mary Crescenzi, associate assistant deputy minister, integrity services branch, Service Canada; Nisa Tummon, assistant deputy minister, program operations branch, Service Canada; and Brian Hickey, director general, temporary foreign worker program, skills and employment branch, ESDC.

Witnesses will have five minutes to make their opening statements.

Before I proceed, I'm going to recognize Mr. Lawrence. I see that he has his hand up.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Thank you.

I apologize to the witnesses. I am hopeful that this won't take long.

I would like to put three motions on notice. Prior to tabling, they will be available in both official languages.

I'll just read them into the record, if that's okay, Mr. Chair.

[Han Dong, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

With respect to the witnesses we have right now on the floor, I'm not aware that committee business or motions are part of that agenda. I wonder if we can have the witnesses and ask our questions first, and then have this at the end as committee business.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Let me confer with the clerk. My belief is that Mr. Lawrence is going to be very brief here.

I'm going to allow Mr. Lawrence to simply read his three motions into the record. Then we're going to move right away to the witnesses. He's not moving them today. There's no debate on them. We're going to get right to the witnesses and we'll address the motions at a later date.

Mr. Lawrence has the floor.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

Could I make a friendly suggestion that we leave that to the end of the meeting? Could we carve out some time? I know that colleagues want to hear this testimony. Certainly he would have the right to give notice, but I think it would be best, in my view at least, to do that at the end. It's just a humble suggestion.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

I appreciate that.

Because I know he is going to be quick, I'm going to let Mr. Lawrence read it in, just to get it done.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

I'll be very quick.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

I always try to get to the four rounds, and I believe that if I get through this I can do that, so I'm going to give Mr. Lawrence the floor to just read these in and get it done.

Mr. Lawrence, the floor is yours.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

I promise that I'll be less than two minutes, Mr. Chair.

Motion number one is this:

Whereas Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has failed to provide newcomers to Canada with timely responses to:

Permanent residency applications and renewals

Afghan Special Immigration Measure applications

Work permits (Temporary Foreign Workers programs)

Citizenship applications

Proof of citizenship

Visitor's visas and electronic travel authorizations

Refugee sponsorships

We call upon the Auditor General to commence a study on processing times within the IRCC.

Motion number two is this:

Whereas the government has continually failed to meet long-term drinking water advisory targets; and

Whereas the government has extended their initial target to eliminate all long-term drinking water advisories from March 2021 to March 2026,

We call upon the Auditor General and officials from Indigenous Services Canada to appear at the Standing Committee on Public Accounts within 60 calendar days to provide an update on the status of the lifting of long-term drinking water advisories in First Nations Communities.

Motion number three is this:

That the committee invites the Auditor General and officials from Public Services and Procurement to provide an update on the National Shipbuilding Strategy in Canada given the international crisis in Ukraine, and the associated impacts on Canada's arctic sovereignty.

I have just a quick note, and then I'll pass it back to you, Mr. Chair.

I'd prefer not to table these motions, and I would like to go by unanimity. I look forward to talking to the chairs of the various parties and hopefully getting this done through unanimous consent.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lawrence. That is all for another day.

I'm now going to turn to Ms. Hogan.

You have the floor for five minutes. Thank you very much for your patience.

To all our witnesses, thank you very much.

[Karen Hogan, Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for this opportunity to discuss our report on the health and safety of agricultural temporary foreign workers in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report was tabled in the House of Commons on December 9, 2021.

I would like to acknowledge that this hearing is taking place on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.

Joining me today is David Normand, who is the principal responsible for the audit.

As part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada amended the immigration and refugee protection regulations in April 2020 to place additional responsibilities on employers of temporary foreign workers to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to help protect workers' health and safety. The audit focused primarily on whether Employment and Social Development Canada conducted inspections to verify whether employers followed these new requirements.

Canada's agricultural sector relies heavily on temporary foreign workers, who are an integral part of the workforce that supports our nation's food system. From the start of the pandemic in March 2020 to June 2021, more than 79,000 of these workers came to Canada.

Overall, we found that Employment and Social Development Canada's inspections, whether they targeted quarantines, outbreaks or basic accommodation requirements, did not show that employers were meeting requirements to protect the health and safety of agricultural temporary foreign workers.

In 2020, 73% of the quarantine inspections we examined had significant problems with quality and rigour. Inspectors determined, without gathering sufficient evidence, that almost all employers were complying with COVID-19 requirements, or inspectors accepted information that flagged possible non-compliance, but they did not follow up.

In December 2020, we informed the department of these alarming findings. We expected the department to take concrete action to improve its inspections, and we continued our audit through the 2021 growing season. Unfortunately, in 2021, the situation worsened. The rate of poor inspections rose to 88%. Timeliness was also a concern, with many quarantine inspections remaining incomplete and inactive long after workers' mandatory 14-day quarantines had ended.

Our audit of the department’s inspections of outbreaks found similar delays and gaps in evidence gathering. The department could not show that employers provided sick or symptomatic workers with accommodations that allowed them to properly isolate. We found that about 60% of the outbreak inspections we examined lacked even the most fundamental supporting information, such as photos of workers’ isolation spaces.

This was also the case with the department’s inspections of basic accommodation requirements, such as running water and occupancy levels. We found that 93% of these inspections had little to no information on workers’ accommodations. Many temporary foreign workers depend on the accommodations provided by employers. This responsibility takes on even more importance in the pandemic context of social distancing and disinfection protocols, as accommodations are often shared.

Before and during the pandemic, the department had committed to improving the living conditions for workers by developing minimum accommodation requirements in its temporary foreign worker program. However, we found that the department had done little to meet these commitments.

Concerns about the living conditions of temporary foreign workers in the agricultural sector are not new. The COVID‑19 pandemic has again underscored that Employment and Social Development Canada needs to prioritize the health and safety of temporary foreign workers and deal with accommodations that are overcrowded or otherwise inadequate. It is long past time to fix the situation for temporary foreign workers who come to Canada.

Mr. Chair, this concludes my opening remarks. We would be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you, Ms. Hogan.

We'll now turn to Mr. Forbes, deputy minister from the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

You have five minutes, as well.

[Chris Forbes, Deputy Minister, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the invitation to appear before the committee today to discuss the Auditor General’s report on the health and safety of agricultural temporary foreign workers in Canada during the COVID‑19 pandemic.

As you all know, labour is a vital resource for Canadian farmers and food processors. Some 60% of all those in the temporary foreign worker program are employed in the agriculture and food sector.

In the early days of the pandemic, Agriculture and Agri‑Food Canada launched two programs to provide financial support to employers to comply with the new federal health and safety measures for temporary foreign workers.

The mandatory isolation support for temporary foreign workers program provided over $130 million to help farm employers, food processors and fish harvesters across Canada to cover costs of compliance with the isolation protocols under the Quarantine Act.

Employers faced a number of increased costs related to entry requirements of temporary foreign workers, and the program helped them offset some of those costs, including wages and benefits, accommodations, and transportation.

Due to high demand and ongoing border measures, we increased funding to the program twice, and we added provisions for employers to cover hotel stays for workers who were unable to travel directly to their place of employment due to quarantine requirements. The program successfully assisted employers, as they brought foreign workers to Canada to enable agriculture and food production to continue at a time when that was a great worry to all of us.

The second program, the emergency on-farm support fund, provided federal-provincial support of over $40 million to help more than 1,700 farm employers prevent and respond to the spread of COVID-19 within their workforce, including temporary foreign workers. This investment helped fund improvements to living quarters and workstations, PPE, sanitary stations, and other key measures. These upgrades helped to ensure that farm employers were better prepared to protect workers and reduce the risk of transmission. Last year, these programs helped to facilitate the arrival of a record number of temporary foreign workers to farms across Canada.

Looking ahead, we continue to work with ESDC and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada on a number of improvements to the temporary foreign worker program. The goal is to improve worker health and safety, and ease the administrative burden for employers.

As the report reminds us, temporary foreign workers are essential to Canada's agriculture sector, to our supply chain, and to our food security. Their skills and labour were key to the Canadian agriculture sector's resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will certainly work together with our partners to strengthen our programs, protect the health and safety of those workers, and keep our food supply chain strong.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you, Mr. Forbes.

We will now hear from Jean‑François Tremblay for five minutes.

[Jean-François Tremblay, Deputy Minister , Department of Employment and Social Development]

Mr. Chair, I want to begin by acknowledging that I am speaking to you today from the unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin nation of Canada.

Thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee today to discuss the Auditor General’s report.

Please let me start by saying that Employment and Social Development Canada, or ESDC, understands the importance of this audit and agrees with its recommendations.

Before we discuss the steps taken by the department to completely rebuild the temporary foreign worker program's compliance regime, please let me briefly provide an overview of this complex program and its purpose.

Temporary foreign workers are a key source of labour, particularly in agriculture and agri-food, and ensuring their reliable entry and safe working conditions is key to continuing the food security of Canadians and Canada's economic recovery.

A critical aspect of the program is that it seeks to address labour and skills shortages while balancing the interests of Canadian workers and employers and the protection of the foreign workers. To that end, we have measures in place to mitigate potential impacts of the program on Canadian workers, such as downward pressure on wages and displacement of Canadians by temporary foreign workers.

Mr. Chair, the challenges brought on by COVID‑19 have been unprecedented—and its impact on the temporary foreign worker program cannot be overstated.

As the pandemic hit, thousands of temporary foreign workers were scheduled to arrive in Canada. At a time of global uncertainty, the department was essentially put in a position of having to build and fly the plane at the same time. ESDC acted quickly to introduce new regulations and build a completely new virtual inspection regime, which evolved amid changing public health directives and crisis conditions throughout the pandemic. The department also implemented new inspection operations to verify employer compliance with quarantine conditions. We issued permanent bans in the most egregious cases of non-compliance.

Despite our best efforts, the Auditor General’s report made it apparent that there were fundamental flaws in a number of areas in ESDC’s management of the program, and in the design of the program itself. Chiefly, as the department rolled out its new inspection regime in 2020—and doubled its inspection workforce from about 100 to 200 inspectors, and continued to hire and train inspectors in preparation for the 2021 season—there was an undesired impact on workload. Simply put, the quality of the documentation of inspections was not satisfactory to support the department’s final decisions.

ESDC owns these shortcomings, but with the delivery of any program, particularly during an unprecedented crisis, there are going to be risks. People were doing their jobs, but because of the situation and the challenges of the pandemic, the program came up short in some areas.

This is not to say that we have not learned from our experience during the pandemic. Though there continued to be challenges in 2021, in July the department reviewed its strategies, and measures such as training, guidance and enhancements to inspection tools were put into effect. Additionally, ESDC's internal audit team conducted a review of 60 compliant inspection files completed in September through December 2021, and concluded that there had been a 45% increase in files that met departmental inspection requirements since June 2021.

We continue to make positive progress as we prepare for the 2022 agricultural season. By the end of February 2022, the prepandemic inventory of inspection cases, active at the onset of COVID-19, had been reduced by 92%. As part of our plan to ensure timely inspections, we have streamlined inspections and balanced inspection workload with departmental capacity. We are aiming for a rate of 90% of inspection files without substantive errors by no later than September.

The department also recognizes the importance of well-trained inspection staff, and all staff responsible for inspections took supplementary training in February 2022.

Finally, we are working with the provinces, territories and key stakeholders to develop program changes that address the most immediate health and safety concerns in employer-provided accommodations. Our goal is to communicate these changes by the end of this year.

Mr. Chair, ESDC agrees with each of the Auditor General’s recommendations. We are committed to completely rebuilding the temporary foreign worker program compliance regime.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. We are happy to now take your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you, Mr. Tremblay.

I now turn to MP Epp.

You have six minutes, sir.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the Auditor General for her work and to the officials for their attendance today.

I'm appreciative that the report reinforces that agricultural temporary foreign workers are an integral part of the workforce that supports Canada's food system.

Of course, the report documents growers' concerns about delays in the audit process, and those delays have affected the grower compensation support programs. The report also validates growers' concerns about the unmanageable volume of new guidance that they were expected to stay on top of and, indeed, it provided a challenge for the inspectors as well.

I wish the report would more strongly acknowledge the existing oversight by municipal and provincial agencies, but overall, it is scathing in its evaluation of the performance of the department.

To the Auditor General, in numerous places, such as paragraphs 13.24 to 13.29, evidence of poor documentation of audits is reported. In December 2020, you took the rather unusual step of meeting with the deputy minister and senior department officials to discuss the seriousness of these early audit findings regarding the quality. Is that correct?

[Karen Hogan]

That is absolutely correct.

I wanted to impress the urgency and the seriousness of the findings that we found, and I asked the department to take immediate action to prioritize the health and safety of temporary foreign workers.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Thank you.

To ESDC, you appear to have put a new quality control process in for completed audits since February 2021. This new process required a second review of inspection records, including quarantine records, to confirm the suspicious evidence that had been gathered. You did that before informing the employer of an inspection result.

I have several questions.

What share of files go through this quality process? What is the service standard for completing it? What are the timelines for advising the original inspector and ultimately the employer? Of course, the most important question is, why did the quality drop in 2021?

[Jean-François Tremblay]

If you would allow me, I will ask Mary to answer the question.

[Mary Crescenzi, Assistant Deputy Minister, Integrity Services Branch, Service Canada, Department of Employment and Social Development]

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.

I am pleased to answer the questions.

I could perhaps say that, yes, we introduced a national quality regime in February that provided the national standards. Subsequently, in July, we moved that quality standard regime to the service delivery network so that it could be closest to the inspectors and could get just-in-time feedback in a much more timely way.

This has been showing tremendous progress to date. In some of the reviews we have had, we are seeing, as our deputy indicated, a 45% increase. As for our substantive errors, since introducing a system enhancement this January, we are seeing higher than 90% without substantive errors. And so—

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Excuse me for interrupting, but when are you reporting that back to the employers?

[Mary Crescenzi]

In terms of the employers, we proceed through a notice of preliminary findings, and then a notice of final determination before those pieces go forward and the quality review, if conducted.

When we first introduced the national framework, we started at 100% review. We have since taken advice from quality experts and reduced that to the most pressing and priority areas, 60% of our files.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Thank you.

In response to the Auditor General's recommendation to re-examine your inspection systems and the training and support for inspectors, etc., you responded with a national steering committee plan in May 2021 to develop an action plan to address those concerns.

Industry has not seen it. Can you describe the plan and table a copy of that plan with this committee?

[Jean-François Tremblay]

Go ahead, Mary.