CIMM Committee Report

Temporary Foreign Workers Minority Report
Olivia Chow, MP

The Citizenship and Immigration Committee made considerable progress in identifying and understanding issues faced by temporary foreign workers.  While the report identifies significant issues with the Temporary Foreign Workers program and how to address them, there are three areas that need to be developed further, namely issues surrounding 1) nation building, 2) social inclusion, and 3) prosecuting unscrupulous recruiters, consultants and employers who prey on the most vulnerable.

Nation Building

Canada is a nation that has been built by waves of immigration. In the early 19th century, British and Irish immigrants came to Canada and used their skills to build Canadian communities. By bringing their families to Canada, immigrants established permanent roots in cities and towns across the country. At the turn of the 20th century, tens of thousands of Chinese migrants were brought to Canada to build the Canadian Pacific railway, which has become a symbol of our national unity. After the railway was complete, however, migrant workers who risked their lives and sacrificed their families were either unceremoniously kicked out of the country or their family members were prevented to join them in Canada. Today, with the continued expansion of the Temporary Foreign Workers program, Canada as a nation is repeating a similar exploitation and exclusion of labour.  Essentially, if temporary foreign workers are good enough to work here, these workers and their families should be good enough to live and stay here, permanently.

In 2007, the Temporary Foreign Workers program admitted over 200,000 migrant workers into the Canadian labour market. The Temporary Foreign Workers program should not replace the existing immigration program; it should only meet labour demands that are seasonal or of a cyclical nature. Through the expansion of the Temporary Foreign Workers program, the Government continues to facilitate the exploitation of thousands of workers and their families.  As a result, the program drives down living wages and creates sub-standard working conditions for many. Immigrants with permanent status, on the other hand, do not drive down wages. Permanent status allows individuals and families to establish roots, forge relationships and community ties, and contribute towards the Canadian economy.  Efforts should be made to limit the number of workers who fall under the Temporary Foreign Workers program.

Live-In Caregivers fall under the Temporary Foreign Workers program.  These workers come to Canada to address a long-term labour shortage.  As such, Live-In caregivers, who qualify, should be granted landed immigrant status with conditions which are to be relieved after three years.  These conditions will prove that she/he has worked as a caregiver in Canada for at least two of the last three years from the time they arrived in Canada.  Families of caregivers should be given a choice to immigrate with them and the above-noted conditions will apply to the whole family. 

Allowing only certain skilled temporary foreign workers to apply for permanent residency through the Experience Class furthers the reliance on the Temporary Foreign Workers program to recruit much needed lower-skilled workers to address long-term labour shortages.   One solution to this problem would be to extend the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) program to give equal opportunity to all temporary workers.

As for those undocumented workers already living and working long term in Canada, they should be given a chance to apply for permanent resident status from within Canada. The Government should also allow provinces to nominate the applicants they need regardless of their current status. Currently Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) are unable to nominate refugee claimants or those without status for permanent residence because the CIC visa offices refuse to give the visas while the applicants are in Canada. CIC should work with the PNP programs so that the provinces can nominate the applicants they need regardless of their current status.

Social Inclusion

Families are the foundation for healthy and strong communities. Every individual, regardless of their status, should be afforded the same rights and should be protected under the law.  Basic employment rights, such as health and safety coverage, housing standards, minimum wage and the right to collective bargaining must be extended temporary foreign workers.

Temporary foreign workers should be covered under the Interim Federal Health program to ensure continuous coverage from arrival to permanent residence.  Currently, OHIP denies coverage to many caregivers who apply for permanent residence.

Living in housing that meet basic standards should be a right of all workers. If employers are providing housing to temporary foreign workers, this should be indicated on the "hiring permit" application.  In addition, employers must indicate whether or not municipal housing authorities have been notified of the housing to be provided and whether or not the housing has been recently inspected and approved. This is already a practice required of all employers under the Live-In Caregiver program, and should be extended to all other temporary works.

The Government should comply with the rulings of the Supreme Court of Canada and make it a condition that provinces bringing migrant workers to Canada allow these workers the right to associate and bargain collectively.

The Temporary Foreign Workers program should allow for the extension of contracts when a migrant worker has been injured at work.  This would permit the Workers Compensation Board to continue providing both benefits and services, including proper rehabilitation.  In addition, if there is evidence that the worker would be left with a permanent impairment as a consequence of the accident, this extension of time would allow the Board to streamline the process of determining the extent of that impairment and its level of compensation. Furthermore, in situations where injuries occurred due to work, the Government should ensure that worker compensation claims are duly filed.

Temporary foreign workers contribute to Employment insurance but seldom qualify to receive EI. Laws should be changed so either they are exempted from payment or EI are made more accessible to these migrant workers.

Canada can only gain in the long run by providing temporary foreign workers and their families with a complete orientation program immediately upon arrival; therefore, settlement services should be extended to temporary foreign workers and their families. Language training is also of particular importance. The Government should provide additional resources to support these settlement interventions as they lead to successfully integrated newcomers.

Prosecute Unscrupulous middle-people, Don't Persecute the Victims

Unscrupulous immigration consultants, recruiters and corrupt agencies continue to take advantage of vulnerable individuals and families by cheating them out of money through false promises. Instead of persecuting the victims of these unscrupulous immigration consultants, we must crack down on these exploitative practices and prosecute corrupt consultants and agencies that prey on the vulnerable.

Vulnerable workers need a voice.  If the Temporary Foreign Workers program is to remain, it only makes sense to provide those workers with an independent body that will advocate for them.  An advocacy office would provide much needed services for not only workers, but also their employers, and the Government of Canada.  An advocacy office could act as a centralized location for the management of information and services such as health care, languages and skills training, permanent residency applications, employer best practices, labour data, and so on.  A better serviced and informed work force would inevitably result in empowering workers, thus making them less vulnerable. The Government should establish these advocacy offices across the country. 

A federal, provincial and municipal joint team in every province with temporary foreign workers would be responsible to regularly monitor the housing, working, health and safety conditions of the workers in the Temporary Foreign Workers program.  Inspectors should be granted the ability to issue orders, fines and penalties.  The Government should mandate that these teams be set up within six months, and teams should report annually on their plans and results.

The Government should not allow provinces to bring in temporary foreign workers unless specific national standards are met, including health and safety coverage, minimum wage, and the right to collective bargaining.

The Government should sign bilateral agreements with sending countries to ensure recruiters are not charging fees to workers. The federal Government must work with provincial Governments to ensure that recruiters bringing temporary foreign workers to Canada are licensed by the Provincial Ministries of Labour. The Government should create a working group, with the federal, provincial and territorial Governments, who would be responsible for developing national standards for the regulation of recruiters. These national standards should be adapted into best practices that employers could use to assist in evaluating and selecting foreign recruiters.