Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, that's what the need is; it's for permanent residency. From a humanitarian point of view, it's the permanent residency that grants people rights in this country, and that's the problem. Temporary foreign workers have very limited rights.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think that's true, yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I am.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, that's not what I said. Let me explain what I meant.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Temporary foreign workers are covered by some of the legislation, such as employment standards, WCB, and some of that kind of legislation. However, their rights as people who are entitled to be in Canada are completely dependent on the work permit, so if they don't have a work pe

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The problem with this whole thing is that temporary foreign workers are being used not as truly temporary foreign workers but as a replacement for a totally dysfunctional immigration system. Let's be clear about that. Those people are not here on a temporary basis. Even Immigrati

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think it's critical. We've heard too many horror stories about families being forced to give mortgages on their family homes to recruiters in some of the foreign countries and of people being held hostage as a result. I don't think it's difficult for the government to say tha

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It is encouraging that. Quite frankly, and pardon me for saying so, we're already operating solely on the basis of ministerial discretion and a system of guidelines. Very many of our rules are strictly guidelines and policies, and people don't have a clue what their rights are, i

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think Jim made an excellent point. The whole temporary foreign worker program is just escalating this problem of undocumented workers. The very first priority should be to ensure that we put into place protection so as to avoid that problem, to put into place restrictions on em

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are farm workers here in Alberta who are stranded. I'm not particularly concerned with employers trying to bring in people at the outset. Once they are here and in trouble--either they have no job or they're in a totally untenable work situation--the very fastest that I can

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think amnesty is essential to deal with this problem. I don't think it should be time-connected. I will tell you that of the illegal workers I have been working with, there are two groups. I met with one last night. He was brought here by a recruiter, assured that the paperwo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sorry. I could talk forever on this. I would like to say one last thing. There are no controls and no protections placed for employees in terms of granting labour market opinions to employers. There is no guarantee that there will be continued employment. There is no charge if s

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd echo Jim's welcome to Edmonton. I have been working with temporary foreign workers on a regular basis for the last two years, both as a volunteer lawyer for the Edmonton Community Legal Centre and, for the last year, as a temporary foreign worker advisor paid for by the Alb