Temporary foreign workers may be able to use the work experience gained in Canada to apply for permanent residency through one of several economic classes of immigration. Workers can apply under federal government criteria using the Express Entry application system. Under Express Entry, applicants must first meet the eligibility requirements of one of the federal economic class programs (namely, the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Federal Skilled Trades Program, or the Canadian Experience Class) in order to be entered into a pool, where all candidates are ranked.[70] The highest-ranking candidates are invited to submit a full immigration application. Another route to permanent residency is for workers to apply under a province’s criteria using the Provincial Nominee Program. Each province and territory, except Quebec and Nunavut, has established nominee criteria to suit its regional economic priorities.

During the course of the study, the Committee had the opportunity to hear from various witnesses about existing barriers to accessing pathways to permanent residency. Witnesses spoke, for example, of the “cumulative duration” rule, which makes workers ineligible for new work permits if they have been working in Canada for four years and bans them from applying for a new one for an additional four years. These are often workers who have already integrated into Canadian society, filled a permanent labour need, and even started their own families, they noted. Along with the processing delays associated with various immigration programs, design flaws of the Express Entry program and recent changes with respect to caregivers, witnesses explained, the “cumulative duration” rule has contributed to the exodus of temporary foreign workers whose work permits have expired before being able to secure permanent residency status.[71]

Witnesses explained that the Express Entry program, designed to benefit those with the highest skills, has acted as a barrier for high-skilled individuals with fixed-term employment contracts as well as for international students. As Technicolor representatives indicated, though the visual effects and animation industry operates primarily on fixed-term employment contracts, the industry’s labour shortage means migrant workers are almost always guaranteed to get new work contracts from their existing employer. Yet, the Express Entry program does not award as many points for fixed-term employment contracts as it does for permanent employment.[72] This concern was echoed by representatives from the Vancouver Economic Commission.[73] Similarly, Vincent Wong, staff lawyer at the Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, indicated that international students often cannot achieve the required minimum number of points under the Express Entry program, given that they may be recent graduates with very few years of work experience. In the witnesses’ view, awarding points in this manner has led to a loss of talent across the various sectors of the Canadian economy.[74]

Witnesses appearing before the Committee also identified barriers to permanent residency for caregivers, a group of migrant workers that traditionally enjoyed a dedicated pathway. Notably, Professor Tungohan spoke of the introduction of a cap on the number of caregiver applications allowed each year, as well as of a backlog of 38,000 applications awaiting a decision, with paperwork taking 49 months on average to be processed. It was also suggested that caregivers are subject to “inconsistent criteria” as, on the one hand, they are required to prove their intention to leave the country after four years, while on the other, they are asked to prove they can integrate in Canada in the long-term when applying for permanent residency. Yet another challenge identified in this regard was the growing trend towards rejecting permanent residency applications from caregivers based on the ground of “medical inadmissibility,”[75] even when evidence to the contrary has been provided. Given the existence of what Professor Tungohan described as “a childcare and elderly care crisis,” witnesses suggested that removing caregivers’ guaranteed pathway to permanent residency will have a serious impact on the nation’s ability to provide appropriate care to children and the elderly.[76]

With respect to temporary foreign workers employed in low-wage positions, the Committee heard that the current pathways to permanent residency favour high-skill workers, a practice deemed “discriminatory” by the Canadian Council for Refugees.[77] In their view, providing low-wage migrant workers with more opportunities to obtain permanent residency would go a long way to addressing the underlying cause of their precarious position, and would be in line with the evidence suggesting that many of the job needs they fill are in fact not “temporary.” In this regard, Professor Jamie Liew observed as follows:

Many temporary foreign workers do some of the most difficult work in our society that allows our communities to function, including picking the fruit we eat, cleaning our toilets, and caring for our children, elderly and dying. These tasks will always need to be done, and addressing long-term labour needs via short-term disposable labour creates a two-tiered society with a growing population of workers who have access to fewer rights than others and are not permitted to integrate and further contribute to Canadian society.[78]

During the study, the Committee also had the opportunity to hear from employers, labour organizations, and temporary foreign workers about the positive impact that successfully transitioning migrant workers into permanent residency can have on labour market conditions and for economic growth.[79] In this regard, Mr. McAlpine of Maple Leaf Foods Inc. observed as follows:

What we have found in our successful use of the program and the transition to permanent residency for foreign workers is that retention is much better than it’s ever been before for our business, in our plants. Once workers obtain their permanent residency, they can certainly then move and work for anyone, but they are loyal and they know that a lot has been invested in them. They become pretty quickly part of the community because of the outreach we’re making to the community, to our partners with the help of the union, to ensure their settlement is successful.[80]

Overall, witnesses called for the “cumulative duration” rule to be abolished as well as for greater opportunities to obtain permanent residency. Speaking of the Express Entry program, witnesses recommended that fixed-term employment contracts and permanent work contracts be allocated the same number of points, and that the Canadian Experience Class be decoupled from Express Entry in order to allow international students greater access to permanent residency. With respect to the special case of caregivers, witnesses suggested that the cap on permanent residency applications be removed. Further, given that the only pathways to permanent residency for low-wage migrant workers are in Provincial Nominee Programs, witnesses recommended that the Provincial Nominee Program be expanded in every province and territory. Finally, it was suggested that greater resources be allocated to ensure the timely processing of applications.