Transport Committee on Nov. 2nd, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Ms. Vanstone, for your opening remarks.

We will begin our round of questioning with Dr. Lewis.

Dr. Lewis, the floor is yours. You have six minutes.

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Thank you so much.

My first question will be for Mr. Gillespie.

It's well known that there are backlogs in the processing of permanent residents, citizens and visa applications. We know that immigration has an important role to play in solving these labour shortage problems in Canada.

What is the state of the backlog of applications with respect to foreign visas and processing temporary foreign workers?

[Jean-Marc Gionet, Director General, Immigration Program Guidance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

I'm happy to intervene on behalf of IRCC. I'll provide a bit of context here in terms of all the measures we are taking. You're right, there is quite an inventory and backlog that we need to work through.

In addition to what Mr. Gillespie mentioned in the opening remarks, it's important to note the progress that is being made since we've doubled down on efforts to work through that inventory and those backlogs.

I have a few statistics to share with the committee. We finalized about 560,000 study permit applications in 2021, which was much higher than the prepandemic figures in 2019. So far in 2022, we've outpaced—

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Mr. Gionet, I'm sorry.

I heard there are 2.6 million applications in the backlog.

Is that correct? Can you confirm that?

[Jean-Marc Gionet]

I'll have to get back in terms of confirming the actual stats. I have a bit of a breakdown.

I can talk to you about the work permit applications, for example. We currently have an inventory of 316,000. I believe the figure for the temporary resident visas is around 800,000. Again, I don't have those statistics at my fingertips.

We would gladly provide those to the committee to support the study.

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

What's the actual processing time for foreign worker applications, say, for example, in the transport section?

[Jean-Marc Gionet]

I have statistics in terms of processing times as of September for work permits. This is not specific to the transportation sector, but on work permits generally. As of September 2022, they stand at approximately 116 days.

As Mr. Gillespie mentioned, with the measures we're putting in place in terms of hiring additional staff and using the technology to find new and efficient ways to process, we're looking to return to service standards in the spring of 2023.

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Have you placed a priority on the transportation sector, given the gravity of the situation?

[Jean-Marc Gionet]

Again, as I think my colleague, Mr. Gillespie, mentioned, there is a priority on truck drivers, for example. As you and this committee are no doubt aware, there is a high demand. As the program and pathway to apply for work permits has no cap and is unlimited, we've seen resurgence in the volume of applications across all lines of business.

We are quickly working to get back to service standards. From January to September of this year, we've issued approximately 552,000 work permits. When we compare that to last year, that figure was about 147,000 for that same period.

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Do you have any numbers on how many employers actually start an LMIA process and then stop?

[Jean-Marc Gionet]

I believe I would have to defer to my colleagues from ESDC for that question.

[Michael MacPhee, Assistant Deputy Minister, Temporary Foreign Workers Program, Department of Employment and Social Development]

I don't have the specific numbers on that front. What I can say from an LMIA processing perspective is that last year we processed almost 70,000 labour market impact assessments for the temporary foreign worker program, and year to date we were at about 45,000 to 50,000. We are certainly seeing a year-over-year increase.

On the positive side on that front, in terms of processing times overall, we are processing those across all the different streams at 31 business days.

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

How many do you have per year? In the year that you processed 70,000, how many applications did you have?

[Michael MacPhee]

We processed all of the applications that came in, so it was 68,000 applications received for a little over 100,000 positions.

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Only 68,000 were received, and you processed them all. None were withdrawn or rejected.

[Michael MacPhee]

There is a portion of those that is rejected or not finalized because of a number of different factors, such as the fact that the employer doesn't meet all the obligations of the program.... We can certainly come back with additional details in terms of that breakdown.

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Thank you. My next question is for Ms. Vanstone.

We heard on Monday that Transport Canada is turning away or failing to certify some foreign-trained, skilled personnel from certain fields, especially the aviation field.

Are you aware of AMEs who have skills in other countries, perhaps even work on Canadian planes, and are turned away at a 99% rate? Are you aware of that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Give a 15-second response, please.

[Melanie Vanstone]

I do not work in the aviation area of Transport Canada. In terms of AME licences, this number is not a correct number. This statistic represents only a small portion of AME applicants who have unapproved foreign basic training. Depending on where the applicants reside, that dictates where they can apply, so they may apply to different regions of Transport Canada. I would say—

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Ms. Vanstone. Unfortunately, we don't have any more time for that question.

Next we have Mr. Iacono.

Mr. Iacono, the floor is yours. You have six minutes.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would also like to thank the witnesses for being with us this evening to provide guidance on how to solve the questions around the labour shortage.

Ms. Vanstone, the transportation sector has been hard hit by labour shortages, particularly in the rail and trucking industries.

As the Conference Board of Canada has noted, older workers are going to have to be relied on more in the transportation sector in order to address the situation.

Tell us what the main challenges are that must be met in order to encourage young people to consider a career in the transportation sector.

What do you think are the possible solutions?

[Melanie Vanstone]

I agree, and I appreciate the question.

We have been looking at Transport Canada, working with, of course, our colleagues at the federal level to look at ways to try to draw the attention of the transportation sector to young Canadians. It is fair to say that there is a lack of awareness of careers in the transportation sector or perhaps a misunderstanding of the skills and the range of transportation careers that are available.

We at Transport Canada have, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, created a website dedicated to helping people explore various careers in the transportation industry and to helping them identify where they would go for training for those careers. Over time, it is an area where we also may have opportunities to work with our colleagues from the industry to look at strategies to, in particular, try to appeal to young people to start off their careers in the transportation sector.

I'm not sure if my colleagues from Employment and Social Development Canada would like to speak in more detail about some of the youth programs that are run from that department.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Yes, please go ahead, anybody else.

[Andrew Brown]

Sure.

I'm Andrew Brown with Employment and Social Development Canada.

I would add that we have a number of different sorts of training programs and supports. First, it starts with working with provinces and territories through supports that we provide them in the form of, very broadly, supports to train and upskill workers. It's really for provinces and territories to then determine what some of the priority areas are for investments within their own jurisdictions.

Second, we take a look at what sorts of programming the federal government can bring, as well, to support various sectors. I know my colleague from Transport Canada already mentioned it, but this new sectoral program that was introduced last year is one of the examples of where we're able to bring a focus to the transport sector and work to identify projects to support skills and employment programming that is targeted to workers and employers in the transportation sector.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you.

For the next questions, I will refer to the report of the supply chain task force and the recommendations that were made.

According to one of the recommendations made, expanding the temporary foreign worker program, as it applies to workers in the transportation supply chain, and expediting refugee and immigration processing for individuals who would be eligible to work for transportation supply chain-related businesses, are urgently needed.

How possible is it to pursue that route, given the current backlogs in processing immigration applications?

What should be done to achieve those objectives, Ms. Vanstone?