Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't think they're required to pay employment insurance, but I might be wrong on that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I just want to make one point. Ms. Mathyssen has raised a point regarding what degree of protection temporary foreign workers and live-in caregivers should have. I think it is generally assumed that we, as Canadians, don't distinguish among workers, that we don't have one set o

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are some recommendations we would concur with. Again, coming back to what I think would be the mechanism for protecting temporary foreign workers, which is the issue I think the committee has dealt with.... It is under provincial jurisdiction. We have no regulatory regime,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, it's easier said than done. The worker certainly doesn't have the power, nor should they raise objection to paying fees, which might further jeopardize their status to remain in the country, and for that matter, remain an employee of that employer. So it's critical that we

Citizenship and Immigration committee  At least on the refugee situation it is purely the role of the federal government in regard to the process for hearings and determination. That does not fall within the provincial jurisdictions. Whatever needs to be done there is purely within the federal government, and it is mu

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, we have had some time to look at the committee's work and recommendations. We appreciate much of what the committee has said in regard to the many points we have been articulating, especially on the temporary foreign workers program, that need to be initiated. Of course, t

International Trade committee  I'll just offer one point.

International Trade committee  Very briefly, I'll simply say that all of the agreements we've negotiated to date have another core in terms of the side agreement to labour, which has proposed to do exactly what you're saying. It talks about how we can improve the conditions and the protection of workers within

International Trade committee  We will send a copy to everybody on the committee. We'll circulate it to everybody.

International Trade committee  Yes. I wanted to acknowledge two points. I think the importance of corporate social responsibility was raised. I'm not suggesting by any means that Canadian companies in operation abroad don't try to adhere to good measures and good behaviour, but the measures are still volunta

International Trade committee  As to the U.S. relationship, it's not a debate about the benefits of NAFTA. When we got into the free trade agreement with the U.S. we were going to end the harassment of our softwood lumber industry. Let me go back a bit in history. We're still dealing with the softwood lumber i

International Trade committee  No, I'm simply suggesting that the concerns we're raising, if we're going to have a rules-based system, should be addressed adequately, as opposed to being ignored. We don't want to be told that it will be adequately dealt with when it won't.

International Trade committee  I'm not suggesting it's a step backwards. I'm saying the rules-based system only covers a certain aspect of our concerns, not all of them.

International Trade committee  We didn't ask them that question. We asked them specifically about our trade agreement. With respect to the U.S. labour movement, their desire to see the chapters dealing with labour and the environment incorporated in the agreement has been addressed by the U.S. government. How

International Trade committee  I can only go on experience. Despite our commitment in the NAFTA agreement to adhere to each other's legislation in regard to protecting labour, and despite the mechanism for us to have those discussions, I would argue that we haven't really enhanced labour protection within the