Citizenship and Immigration committee  Exactly. The government responsible for Quebec is asking you to pay the bill. If there were surpluses, but you suddenly decided that Quebec would pay for asylum seekers in order to repay the surpluses, that doesn't make sense. You can't decide something like that, Minister Miller.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. However, it depends on the agreement reached beforehand, Minister Miller.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The more I listen to you, Minister Miller, the more I understand why people in the city of Quebec are worried. They're listening to you too. Even though, as you say, you don't want to talk about it publicly, you keep repeating in every public forum that Quebec owes Ottawa money.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Minister Miller, thank you for being here today. You spoke about Ukraine in your opening remarks. In a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people, Quebec wanted to help asylum seekers, obviously in exchange for reimbursement from the federal government.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You're telling me that your Quebec counterpart's concerns are completely bogus and that you've footed the entire bill for the intake of Ukrainian refugees. Is that what you're saying?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In that case, why is Quebec the only province to ask you for a reimbursement? If the other provinces aren't doing so, maybe the reason is that they aren't spending anything and that you're funding everything on the other side of the Ottawa River.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Let's talk about it. You keep bringing up the Canada‑Quebec accord. However, you give money to Quebec because it has responsibilities that the other provinces don't have. It relieves the federal government of a number of responsibilities. That's why you pay. When the services that you don't provide are delivered by someone else, it's only fair that you pay.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I planned for a two‑hour committee meeting, since I received a notice stating two hours. I don't see why it would be more than two hours.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Last week, we had representatives from the Union des producteurs agricoles, which represents Quebec's agricultural producers and which I imagine you are familiar with. They told us they were in favour of an open permit, but sectoral and regional. Such a permit would allow a temporary worker who isn't attracted to large urban centres to work in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, for example, but also to change location.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  All right. You told us you've never heard of any stories of mistreatment because of closed permits. Am I misunderstanding or is that what you told us?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You strike me as an informed person who reads newspapers and watches television, and you also seem really knowledgeable about the program, among other things. Yet you tell me you've never heard of temporary foreign workers on closed permits being abused by employers.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You never hear about the situations where everything's going great, where there's nothing but good news and the foreign workers have almost become members of the family. We mostly hear about the other stories. They may be sensationalized, but do you agree with me that one case of abuse is one case too many?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I've never heard of a closed permit in the case of a Canadian citizen, though. Presumably, closed permits for foreign workers give the employer much more power than any employer dealing with Canadian citizens, who don't have closed permits. I was a freelancer, in my previous life.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to welcome the witnesses. Just so you know, I'm the member for Lac‑Saint‑Jean, a riding in northern Quebec, which is very agricultural and very rural. Many of my friends are agricultural producers, and they're asking themselves questions right now.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. What does it mean to a small agricultural producer when a worker quits before the contract is up? Isn't it a bit catastrophic when this happens, especially when it's harvest time?