Opinion: Essential Changes for Essential Migrant Workers
Senator Ratna Omidvar and Leslie Seidle comment on how the COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the importance of essential workers and the need to rebalance the proportions of high- and lesser-skilled immigrants to Canada.
The COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on the situation of Canada’s essential workers. We are now more aware of significant labour shortages, frequently unsafe working conditions and low pay. Many essential workers are new Canadians, temporary foreign workers (TFWs) or asylum seekers. Although problems have been known for years, some of what we have learned recently has been a shock.
Due to their working conditions, employees in long-term care homes are more vulnerable to infection. In Quebec, inadequate safety procedures and the flight of staff led to a grave crisis. In the neighbourhood of Montréal-Nord, where many care home workers live, the infection rate became one of the highest in the city. A number of care homes in Ontario also became COVID-19 “red zones.”
Seasonal agricultural workers, who account for 27 per cent of employees in crop production, are also being hit hard. In Southern Ontario, hundreds of workers have been infected because of what appears to be substandard employer-provided housing and the need to work side by side. Distancing guidelines also seem impossible to enforce.
Governments have taken some initial steps to ameliorate these problems. The federal government is providing up to $3 billion to the provinces and territories to increase the wages of low-income essential workers who earn less than $2,500 a month. However, this is a temporary measure.
Provinces are also innovating. Quebec has launched a program to recruit 10,000 patient attendants for publicly run long-term care homes. Candidates who successfully complete the training course will make $49,000 a year. The response has been huge: some 80,000 people have applied. The Quebec government is also developing a new immigration pilot for patient attendants, with an annual target of 550 participants.
As governments transition to a post-COVID state, it will be important to take account of the various obstacles that essential workers face. Better pay needs to be reinforced by safer working conditions — an area regulated by provincial governments.
Many essential workers face an additional obstacle: precarious immigration status. Hundreds of asylum seekers have been working in Quebec’s CHSLDs, but a large number fear eventual deportation. Seasonal agricultural workers’ visas can extend to eight months but are tied to a single employer, not to the sector. Workers who have a falling out with an employer can be sent back to their home country. Moreover, even those who come to Canada year after year cannot apply for permanent residence.
There are solutions, however. For one, Canada should consider developing new pathways for permanent residence for lower-skill essential workers. Many argue that if these workers are so essential to our well-being and safety, then it is the safest and prudent, yet also the most humane, way forward.
Canada has considerable experience with two-step migration through pathways to PR for certain TFWs. The Canadian Experience Class is a well-established two-step program. We also see this approach in federal pilot projects for home child-care providers, personal support workers and agri-food industries.
However, these small pilots leave many behind. Coming out of the COVID crisis with new wisdom, Canada needs to reset policies and programs to meet our labour market needs. This reset starts with acknowledging that we will need workers at both ends of the economy. We will need those with the skills and education to compete in a knowledge economy as well as workers for the service industry, semi-professional health care and agriculture.
An expanded lens on two-step migration is imperative. The federal government should consider this for workers in long-term care homes. Qualifying candidates would be TFWs until they worked the requisite amount of time (one or two years) and made the transition to permanent residence. An applicant who had previously worked in a care home should be credited for the relevant amount of time.
The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program needs an in-depth review in consultation with key stakeholders. There have been too many allegations of abuse and misuse of workers that a complete overhaul is needed.
In the meantime, a two-step migration option for this cohort is also needed, especially since some workers have come here year after year for 20 years. An expansion of the Agri-Food pilot is one place to start. Further, it is a shame that we require seasonal agricultural workers to pay into employment insurance and the Canada Pension Plan when they cannot claim either.
As governments face the hard task of renewal, Canada needs to rebalance the proportions of high- and lesser-skilled immigrants. The annual federal target is slated to rise by 10,000 a year in 2021 and 2022. This provides room to add two-step pathways for long-term care workers and seasonal agricultural workers. Skilled worker programs would still remain at the heart of Canada’s approach to economic immigration. But we need a more nuanced, whole-of-labour market approach coming out of this crisis — one that will lead to concrete and equitable improvements for essential workers.
Senator Ratna Omidvar is an independent senator from Ontario. Leslie Seidle is a research director at the Institute for Research on Public Policy.
Read the Op-ed on the iPolitics website