The Senate is wrapping up fact-finding and is due to release a report on migrant workers this spring.
It will repeat much of what has already been reported about poor housing, employers who abuse workers and broken promises.,
The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology has been working on the report for about a year.
Chair Senator Retna Omidvar said after a recent trip to Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick that many workers told her about poor working and housing cojditions,
unscrupulous recruiters, and exploitative employers.
"We heard about conditions that were, frankly, intolerable," said Omidvar. "At the same time, we also saw housing that was really decent."
One discovery was the difficulties moving from one place to another as worker demand shifts because work permits are restrictive.
"I think that we could serve them all better if we moved from temporary work permits that tie you to a singular employer and move to, what I would call, regional sector work permits," Omidvar said.
"We're also keen on making sure that essential sectors of our Canadian economy are able to continue to produce, manufacture, and put their products on the shelf," she said. "We heard they cannot do this without migrant workers."
Some employers are innovating on behalf of their employees. Omidvar recalled a seafood plant in Prince Edward Island that sponsors workers for permanent residency, something many advocates argue is essential.
Just as CBC’s Fifth Estate program revealed abuses in recruiting foreign students in India, this committee heard about how some temporary foreign workers are being misled into believing that work permits are a pathway to permanent residency in Canada. Others charge as much as $80,000 for recruitment fees, sometimes for employers or jobs that do not exist.
"People come to Canada with false expectations, which have been provided to them by unethical consultants overseas. We can't do anything about the consultants," Omidvar said. "But I believe we can do much better in reaching the populations through our consulates and embassies in sending countries."
"For the first time, we are seeing a shift in public opinion," she said. "We have not invested as a country in housing for decades. No level of government has invested in public housing, and all of a sudden, immigrants are to blame. I think that needs to be called out."
The situation with foreign students is remarkably similar. The Fifth Estate talked to a farmer’s daughter from India who is living with in a Toronto-area house with eight other students on the main floor and another six in the basement.
In Kitchener, East Indians have bought new homes and filled them with students that pay $900 a month for a single room. Conestoga College alone has more than 30,000 foreign students this year, all of them trying to find housing and part-time jobs that are both scarce.
Unlike the temporary foreign worker program, the federal government reacted promptly to the Fifth Estate reports by announcing it will cut foreign student permits by 50 per cent.
