Immigration Inquiry: Recognizing the Contributions of Immigrants to Alberta | Senator Paula Simons

On March 10, 2020 Senator Paula Simons spoke in support of the inquiry into immigration and its connection to Canada’s past, present and future prosperity. Her remarks focus on the role of immigrants as one of the driving forces of the Canadian economy and on the contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs in Alberta. She concludes that immigration is a mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship.

Hon. Paula Simons: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak in support of the inquiry into immigration and its connection to Canada’s past, present and future prosperity, as championed by my respected colleague, Senator Omidvar. This is a topic of special importance to the Albertans and Edmontonians whom I am so proud to represent.

Edmonton likes to call itself the Festival City, but to me, there is no one festival that better exemplifies Edmonton than our three-day Edmonton Heritage Festival. Each August, hundreds of thousands of Edmontonians flock to Hawrelak Park, in the heart of Edmonton’s lush green river valley, to celebrate the dance, the music, the handicrafts and the food of their root cultures.

Last year there were 70 separate pavilions in the park, representing more than 100 different home countries and cultures places as diverse as Mongolia, Peru, Zimbabwe, Iran and Australia. Where else in the world can you nibble a hot, crispy Afghani bolani, fresh off the grill, washed down with a Liberian pineapple ginger beer, while you watch a K-pop dance routine?

I am not a religious person. But sometimes, when I’m at the festival, I have moments that feel almost numinous: when I see a picnic table full of grannies in bright fuchsia and emerald saris, tucking into plates of perogies, topped high with sour cream; when I see the kids who are volunteering at the Jamaican pavilion come running across the grass, laughing to see their friends’ faces freckled, sugar-dappled, with the white icing powder that’s wafted off their giant Croatian doughnuts; when I lie back on the grass to digest all the Filipino pancit I’ve eaten, close my eyes, and hear the bright sharp salsa music from the Guatemalan pavilion mingle with the pounding sound of the Irish step dancers on the other side of the hill. In those moments, Hawrelak Park is my temple, the sacred space where I can savour the beauty, the flavour, the richness and the diversity of modern multicultural Edmonton at its best. For me, the festival is the place that puts the cosmos in cosmopolitan.

Many Edmontonians, like me, are the children or grandchildren of immigrants. But immigration continues to build and enhance our deliciously polyglot city. Indeed, immigrants are one of the most vital driving forces of our economy in 2020.

According to Statistics Canada, more than one quarter of Edmonton’s entire workforce is made up of immigrants, and in some economic sectors, the numbers are far higher. Of hospital workers in Edmonton, from custodians to doctors, 31% are immigrants and so are 52% of people who work in nursing homes and elder care facilities. But it’s not just in health care that Edmonton relies on immigrant labour. Immigrants make up more than 30% of those working in banking, manufacturing and the transportation sector.

Let it be said that the numbers in Calgary, our sister city to the south, are even more striking. In Calgary, immigrants make up one third of the labour force, including more than 60% of those working in care homes. In Calgary, 47% — or nearly half — of all engineers — and in Calgary, that’s a lot of engineers — are immigrants, as are 33% of all Calgarians working in professional or technical services. And it’s not just Calgary’s energy sector that depends on immigrant labour; more than 40% of those who work in Calgary’s vital tourism sector are immigrants, too.

In short, in Alberta, our hospitals, banks, universities, hotels, restaurants, cannabis greenhouses and our energy industry could not run without the talent and enterprise and dedication of new or newish Canadians.

For years, Edmonton and Calgary, booming economies with functional full employment but relatively affordable housing, were able to attract immigrants without tremendous effort. Even if newcomers didn’t land in Alberta, they often made their way there, drawn by economic or social opportunity.

Today, Alberta’s economy is facing serious challenges, which look even more dire this week with the collapse of world oil prices that fell by 25% on Monday, leaving Albertans reeling and in shock. Unemployment rates are climbing. Our streets no longer seem paved with gold. And yet, perhaps ironically, now is when we in Alberta need immigrants more than ever.

In these tough times, Alberta needs tough people, adventurous people, courageous people. We need immigrant workers, but more than that, we need immigrant skill and talent, immigrant capital, immigrant investment and immigrant entrepreneurship.

As Edmonton and Calgary struggle to adjust to new fiscal realities and new global imperatives, it is essential that Alberta and its major cities, as well as its many smaller communities, have the capacity to attract newcomers who can help to support, expand and diversify our economy, whether they be Dutch-born farmers opening greenhouses in Lacombe, Syrian-born soap makers launching a line of skin care products in Calgary or Iranian-born engineers pioneering new forms of telecommunications in Edmonton.

Despite Edmonton’s current 8% unemployment rate, the city faces labour shortages in certain key areas. At the same time, Edmonton’s workforce is aging. Even though Edmonton has the lowest median age of any major city in Canada, its percentage of workers under the age of 55 is still in decline.

Edmonton’s entrepreneurs and small-business owners are aging too. According to Statistics Canada, 36% of those in Edmonton who identify as self-employed are over the age of 55. StatCan estimates that some 23,000 Edmonton business owners will be heading into retirement in the near future. Edmonton needs a new generation of entrepreneurs to drive growth in key industries. Decades of research show that immigrants are more likely to start their own businesses, more likely to become entrepreneurs, than those born Canadian.

Edmonton needs that fresh entrepreneurial energy, vision and investment capital to thrive, whether the businesses involved are mom-and-pop restaurants or high-tech computer firms.

Down the road, Calgary is in a similar bind. According to Statistics Canada, Calgary’s 55-plus workforce has grown by 62% since 2010. To put it another way, more than 170,000 people in the Calgary workforce are over the age of 55, while at the same time the number of Calgarians between the ages of 20 and 24 is down by 4.4%.

More than one out of every five Calgarians working in professional, scientific and technical services is over the age of 55, including 6,800 engineers, engineering managers and engineering technologists. One in four Calgarians working in the health sector is over 55 as well. Now, here in the Senate, we all know that 55 is the new 30 and that being over 55 does not mean your working life is over. Still, given its demographics, Calgary needs the injection of new blood and new life, of young skill and fresh verve, that immigration could bring.

So at this time of crisis in Alberta, we badly need a national immigration strategy that doesn’t just focus on the big cities like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. We need a national immigration strategy that supports provinces across the country, including Alberta, in attracting and retaining the newcomers they need to grow and succeed, that helps newcomers to make the most of their training and talent and that recognizes their education and credentials.

Here are some examples of what that might mean in Alberta.

According to federal data, Alberta has consistently lagged behind other provinces in attracting foreign students. Between 2007 and 2016, the number of international students with valid student permits in Canada increased by 130% from 179,146 to 412,101. However, over that same time period, the percentage of foreign students in Alberta increased by only 80%, a big increase to be sure, but far less than 130%.

Let me put in another way, for emphasis. As of December 31, 2016, Alberta had only about 5.7% of all international students in Canada, despite having a share of the national population more than twice that large. I’d like to see this inquiry help us to understand why Alberta’s post-secondary institutions aren’t keeping pace when it comes to enticing the best and the brightest, the future scientists, engineers, doctors, intellectuals and artists who could help our province and our country flourish, not just as students but should they decide to stay.

Here’s another example: Edmonton’s francophone population is growing. In the 2016 census, more than 27,000 Edmontonians reported speaking French as their first official language. Furthermore, the census also revealed that almost 7,000 Edmontonians reported speaking French and English — hopefully better than I do — which, according to Statistics Canada, makes this city one of the Canadian urban centres with the largest bilingual population outside Quebec. That’s a demographic statistic that truly surprised me.

Francophone immigrants, especially those from Africa, contribute to the vitality of Edmonton’s francophone community. However, newcomers often don’t have access to the French-language services they need upon their arrival. I’d like to see a study of how the federal government could provide more support for francophone immigrants outside Quebec.

I have another example. I’d like to see this inquiry take a close, hard look at both the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the Live-in Caregiver Program, which play a huge part in Alberta’s economy, to ensure they are working to the benefit of the workers, the employers and the provincial economy, to ensure that workers are neither marooned nor held hostage by irresponsible or exploitative employers. How can we find ways to guarantee that people who’ve already demonstrated their work ethic, their integrity and their ability to adapt to Canada get the smoothest possible path to permanent residency and to citizenship?

I could go on, but I shall not belabour you with examples here and I am mindful of the clock.

What we need most of all is to lose the mindset that we are doing people some sort of grand favour by letting them move here. No, what we need to understand is that immigration is a mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship, that Canada needs immigrants every bit as much as immigrants need Canada.

I want to thank Senator Omidvar for launching this timely inquiry. As an Albertan, I have to say the timing could not be more apt. Next August, I invite you to join me in Hawrelak Park. The bolani will be on me.