Speaking points for the Honourable Jason Kenney, P.C., M.P. Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism at the Kababayan Community Centre to Announce Improvements to the Live-in Caregiver Program

Kababayan Community Centre
Toronto, Ontario
December 12, 2009

As delivered

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I would like to wish you all a good afternoon, mabouhai. I really would like to first of all acknowledge the presence of so many important community leaders. I see Reverend Julius Ching. I was out at his centre, Pathway Centre for Newcomers, the other day. I would like to acknowledge my good friend Joe Oliver, who has been a constant, relentless pressure on me towards today’s announcement. I would also like to acknowledge my colleague, Bob Dechert. Bob Dechert is the Member of Parliament for Mississauga-Erindale, and he has been a strong and relentless advocate for justice and fairness for caregivers and for newcomers in general.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am here to make a very exciting announcement. Before I get to it and since we are here in one of the important institutions of the Filipino community, the Kababayan Community Centre, I want to say a big thank you to all the members of the Filipino community for their generosity in responding to the recent disaster in Philippines, Typhoon Ketsana, and the other terrible weather events that occurred.

We know that we lost many hundreds of people. We pray for them, but most importantly, we thank you for being so generous. This community helped to raise millions of dollars in aid and support for those families. And I was very proud that the Government of Canada reflected the generosity of the community by contributing the largest amount of emergency aid in the world, $5 million more than the United States and the European Union combined, a reflection of our generosity.

And we are delighted that Canada was able to open the doors to provide them with new homes after they lost their homes in Manila and in the other parts of the Philippines affected by the storm.

To turn to today’s announcement, let me begin by saying that we are here to talk about some very important improvements to the Live-in Caregiver Program. Some people would like to end the Live-in Caregiver Program. I don’t think they fully appreciate the full value, the hard work, the centrally important jobs that are done by caregivers, usually women of great compassion, who give of themselves. Many of them have training as medical practitioners, as nurse assistants, and as nurses, and they come from different backgrounds. Many, if not, in fact, the vast majority, originally are from the Philippines.

These are people who come to Canada to help families who need support taking care of the disabled, of elderly family relatives, of children. This need, as we have an aging population, will continue to grow because we will see more and more families who need to take care of seniors and who, because of their own family structure, are unable to do so by themselves. Canada benefits hugely. Canada wins with the support and the help of the caregivers.

We honour the commitment and the hard work, the dedication and the sacrifice of the caregivers. We are proud to have a program that allows them a privileged pathway to permanent residency in Canada, where they can sponsor their families and have a bright future, a pathway that might not otherwise be available to them through other permanent resident streams of immigration to Canada. I think the objective of the program is a good one. It helps Canada fulfill its caretaking needs and provides new opportunities for those who come through the program.

We don’t want to end the program as some would have us do, but we need to mend the program. We need to fix it because we have heard the tragic stories, most notably about Juana Tejada and the other caregivers who found themselves caught up in the red tape of the second medical when they were facing the pressure of their own personal medical emergencies.

We heard about the tragedies of women faced with abusive employers, people who arrive and are not able to get the job that was offered to them because it does not exist. We have heard about women who have been exploited by unscrupulous consultants or agents who took money from them for jobs that did not exist, or employers that made them work against the rules of our labour market codes. We have heard the pleas of these women to ask for fair treatment. They are willing to work hard; they are willing to help the families; they want the chance to be able to sponsor  their own families in due course. They appreciate and benefit from the program, but they want to make sure that we put an end to those abuses.

I want to honour the advocates in the caregiver community, the Filipino community, and other organizations who have given a voice to the voiceless, who have stood up for those who really don’t have any political power in Canada, those who really don’t have much economic sway, but who have been a strong united voice. That is the reason that I am standing here today.

When I became Minister of Immigration one year ago, I began to become aware of the many problems in the Live-in Caregiver Program, and that is why, in the spring, I launched our series of consultations across the country. We had roundtables here in Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Montreal. I had conference calls. We received written submissions from hundreds of individuals. And we tried to take a balanced perspective from the advice that we received.

We heard from caregivers directly, from their advocates, from people in the settlement organizations, from people in the churches who help them. We heard from ex-lawyers and from consultants. We also listened to people representing the agencies because we wanted to get all of the perspectives and to make sure any changes we make are balanced and responsible. As a result of those consultations, I closely studied the different ideas that were put on the table.

We also commend the provincial governments for moving in the right direction. Yesterday, we celebrated an important victory with the passage of the new law through the Ontario Legislature that will complement the changes that I am about to announce right now.

The Live-in Caregiver Program is a component of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, and assists employers in recruiting caregivers to live and work in the homes of those for whom they are caring in order to provide child care or support for seniors or people with disabilities. The program facilitates the entry of qualified caregivers into Canada when there is a shortage of Canadians or permanent residents to fill those positions. In return, the program allows live-in caregivers to apply for permanent residence in Canada, after working for two years within the first three years of entry into Canada, to work in the program.

But, as I have said, there are concerns, and we need to address those concerns to empower the caregivers to ensure that they are not subject to abusive situations, to ensure that they are not exploited by unscrupulous consultants and to ensure that they have a fair, clear pathway to permanent residency.

That is why I am here to announce that the Government of Canada is proposing measures that would make it easier for live-in caregivers to obtain permanent residence, to make the program more flexible for caregivers and to better protect their rights.

Under these planned changes, our government hopes to honour the memory of the late Juana Tejada, by eliminating the requirement that all live-in caregivers undergo a second medical examination. Effective the date of the implementation of these regulations in about 30 days from now, the second medical will be waived for all caregivers entering the program. In this we honour the memory of Juana Tejada and all the others who have been brave champions of their sisters, the Filipinas, and the others in the caregiver program.

In addition, the period allowed to gain the required work experience to apply for permanent residence will be extended from three years to four years. This responds to concerns that some live-in caregivers are not able to meet the requirement within the three years, and would allow for unforeseen breaks in employment due to events such as pregnancies, illnesses, or loss of employment when people need to find a new employer.

The changes also include a measure whereby live-in caregivers who work overtime could apply for permanent residency even faster than they can now. Once the changes are implemented, caregivers would be eligible to apply for permanent residence after 3,900 work hours. That’s the equivalent of working a standard work week over two years. Because the work could be calculated in hours, some of their overtime hours could count toward this requirement and would allow some caregivers to apply for permanent residency sooner than is now the case.

Furthermore, a number of additional changes that we are making will increase the protection of live-in caregivers and improve their working conditions.

Under additional improvements to the program, employers of live-in caregivers will be required by the federal government, working with the provinces, to pay travel costs, medical insurance, workplace safety insurance, and any recruiting fees owed to third parties. No longer will caregivers be paying people to get the jobs to work hard in Canada.

This will complement new legislation passed earlier this week in Ontario, as I mentioned, which imposes fines of up to $50,000 and a year in jail to anyone who charges a placement or recruitment fee to a caregiver in the province. This also complements the provision in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of an up-to- $50,000 fine for any employer who forces someone to do work that is outside the parameters of their work permit. That is not going to be tolerated.

Under our government’s improvements to the Live-in Caregiver Program, employment contracts will include employer-paid benefits, as well as mandatory clauses in the contract that every employer must sign clearly outlining their duties, hours of work, overtime and holidays, sick leave, and termination and resignation terms. And we now have new agreements with the provinces to ensure the proper monitoring and enforcement of these new mandatory contract provisions.

In addition, information packages for live-in caregivers will be improved. I know that in the Philippines there is the one-day mandatory pre-departure seminar, but I also know that many caregivers are not coming directly from the Philippines. Many are coming from Hong Kong, Singapore, the Middle East and elsewhere. We will ensure that they all have this information before they leave for Canada so they know what their rights are, what their recourse is, and whom to call to protect themselves.

In addition to the information packages, we will be opening a new federal, dedicated Live-in Caregiver hotline that will be established 24-hours a day for people to call for help and guidance.

We have also created an agreement between CIC and Human Resources and Social Development to allow for fast-track emergency issuing of new work permits and Labour Market Opinions. This means that if a caregiver is in an abusive situation that she needs to leave, she will no longer be stuck for months and months searching for a new employer, getting a Labour Market Opinion, and getting the work permit as the clock ticks on her three-year maximum to permanent residency. Now, under the new provisions, she will be able to get a replacement Labour Market Opinion and work permit within three weeks.

Today’s announcement builds on recently proposed changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, of which the Live-in Caregiver Program is a part, which introduced penalties for employers who fail in their commitments to their employees. We announced those changes in October, and those changes say that if an employer abuses the terms of the contract or the work permit; they will be penalized, they will be sanctioned.

We are now working together between the federal and provincial governments. The provincial government is responsible for labour market enforcement, and the federal government is responsible for work permits and Labour Market Opinions. If the province identifies to us an abusive employer who told the caregiver to do things that they were not supposed to do—to work too many hours, to live in sub-standard conditions, for example—that employer will lose the right to sponsor or get a new work permit for a replacement caregiver in the future. We are creating a black list of bad employers, and they will know they can no longer exploit people as they have in the past.

These measures would enhance the protection of caregivers and help fulfil Canada’s duty to those who care for our young, our disabled, and our elderly.

The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that the Live-in Caregiver Program remains fair and equitable to workers and to employers. We are confident, ladies and gentlemen, with the action we are taking will work towards protecting foreign workers, including live-in caregivers, from potential abuse and exploitation.

This is a happy day. I want to thank all of you for working with us. We look forward to implementing these measures.

Thank you very much.