Madam Speaker, here we are talking about forced labour and our supply chains. When we look at what is happening here in Canada, we had the report of the special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery. She cited that modern-day slavery is happening today in our temporary foreign worker program.
In my riding, there were some workers who were working for a local mill, and they were living in deplorable conditions. There was no running water, no sewage treatment and no flushing toilets. The horrific conditions they were in were unbelievable. When this was uncovered, the government did not send inspectors in to come and help them. It took amounts of pressure to actually get them the support they needed.
Finally, they were removed by a local non-profit that helped house them and give them support while they waited a couple of months to get open permits. These workers were subjected to horrific working and living conditions.
In Port Alberni, our community is reeling from what happened to these workers, and it is a human rights issue that needs to be addressed. Could my colleague express the flaws in the temporary foreign worker program and what is happening to workers here at home?