Public Accounts committee  That's a bit of a complex question to answer, because it is the employer's responsibility to comply with basic housing requirements that are set either provincially or municipally. The temporary foreign worker program inspection regime is one that's supposed to ensure that the employer continues to meet the minimum standards prepandemic and even in those post-quarantine inspections.

Public Accounts committee  The scope of our audit did not look at vaccination policies. We looked at the changes to the immigration and refugee protection regulations. Any traveller coming into Canada has to comply with vaccination rules, and that would have been handled by another party, but it wasn't part of the inspection regime.

Public Accounts committee  It's hard to assess the situation when information is lacking. For example, in order to conclude that accommodations allow for proper physical distancing, the inspector has to be able to show that beds are at least six feet apart. However, if a photo shows only one bed in a room, when the room actually has other beds in it, it is very difficult to determine whether the accommodations meet the requirements.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, that's right. Without concrete evidence, it's difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether employers protected the health and safety of workers and whether the department was right in concluding that employers had taken the necessary steps.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, that's exactly right.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, those are the facts of the situation. I would like to add, though, that it is possible to conduct virtual interviews. We found, however, that in many cases, a virtual interview had not taken place, or that if it had, the information provided was not taken into account. That type of information should not be omitted from the file, whether the inspection is done virtually or in person.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question. The first thing I would say is that the regulations can be very clear. That's what we see here. The rule changes that were introduced to protect the health and safety of temporary workers were very clear. The next thing is instructions that are very clear.

Public Accounts committee  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.

Public Accounts committee  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.

Finance committee  All of the contracts we award to contractors to support us in preparing our audit filings include confidentiality clauses, and we have no reason to believe that these clauses were not well and truly followed. We have contracted with people who bring the views of all parties, including the Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois, to ensure that we consider the views of all Canadians when we prepare to table our reports.

Finance committee  Absolutely. As I mentioned previously, I am concerned that there needs to be a shift from that emergency planning reactive mode to one that has a more long-term focus. I would expect to see adjustments and improvements to controls prepayment and that the post-payment work would begin as soon as possible.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, would you like me to proceed?

Finance committee  The contract in question is one that's given to media coaches who prepare me and other senior officials in my office as we prepare to release and table reports. That audit is finalized and completely done, and we ensure that we have points of view that represent all political parties and all different interests across the country.

Finance committee  That is a great question. While I am new to the role, I have been in the office about 15 years, and I must admit that I don't know whether or not our office has been consulted on developing other policies in the past. I do know that we have provided advice on controls. Many of our audits do comment on gaps in policy, when we look at the implementation of a policy to see whether it's done effectively.

Finance committee  I agree with your statement that the government needs to act on the recommendations in our reports and that they need to put their action plans in place in a timely way, which includes making sure that they're properly resourced in order to carry those out. When I referenced international best practices, those had to do with emergency situations and finding the right balance between the speed of delivery of money and support, and the controls.