Minister Hussen on supporting Canadians during the pandemic

Minister Hussen on supporting Canadians during the pandemic

MINISTER AHMED HUSSEN

Interview: Ahmed Hussen
Minister of Families, Children and Social Development

By Irish Mae Silvestre
The Philippine Reporter

While many across the country have felt the effects of the pandemic, racial minority communities have felt it the most from higher infection rates and higher job losses. Hon. Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development discussed immigration issues and how the Fall Economic Statement details the government’s plan to combat the COVID-19 recession.

THE PHILIPPINE REPORTER: Can you tell us about the government’s economic growth plan?

MINISTER AHMED HUSSEN: The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance presented our plan to support Canadians through the pandemic and rebuild Canada’s economy in the Fall Economic Statement.

For families, high quality affordable childcare is a necessity. That’s why we are committed to creating a Canada-wide early learning and childcare system, and it is why the Fall Economic Statement commits to laying the groundwork for this system with $20 million for a National Secretariat and $420 million to support, attract and retain early childhood educators.

For families eligible for the Canada Child Benefit, we’re committed to giving $1,200 more per child under the age of six for low- and moderate-income families in 2021.
We also understand that one Canadian experiencing homelessness is one too many. So, in the Federal Economic Statement we are committing to $299 million in 2021-2022 to sustain the COVID-19 response in the homeless community through Reaching Home.

To assist Canadians who rent, we’re committed to increasing lending capacity through the Rental Construction Financing Initiative with $12 billion in new lending over seven years. And to help Canadians with the dream of home ownership we’re expanding the eligibility through the First-Time Homebuyers Incentive to be reflective of the financial realities of those living in Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria.

TPR: The pandemic has left care workers (who don’t have permanent status), international students and temporary foreign workers more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. What’s being done to protect them? Many complain that caregiver pathways and strict language requirements make it even more difficult for them to be eligible.

AH: International students make incredible social, economic and cultural contributions to our country and we don’t just want them to study here – we want them to stay here. We want to be clear: there is a great difference between the expiry of a person’s temporary status and facing removal from Canada. With COVID-19 causing significant disruptions, we’ve taken steps to support those in Canada and we hope to help more of them make the transition to permanent residency. A person whose status will expire has options to extend it before it does, and a period of time to restore their status if it does expire. During the pandemic, we extended the period that temporary residents have to restore their status.

In regard to temporary foreign workers, while this policy is in place, a worker who is already in Canada and has secured a new job offer, typically backed by a labour market test, can get approval to start working in their new job, even while their work permit application is being fully processed. This will cut what can often take 10 weeks or more, down to 10 days or less.

Visitors who are currently in Canada and have a valid job offer will be able to apply for an employer-specific work permit and, if approved, receive the permit without having to leave the country

This temporary public policy also provides the opportunity for applicants who meet these criteria and who had a valid work permit in the past 12 months to begin working for their new employer before their work permit application has been fully approved.

We’ve also invested to protect temporary foreign workers (TFW) on farms. With the investment of $58.6 million, the Government is strengthening the TFW Program and making further investments to safeguard the health and safety of Canadian and temporary foreign workers from COVID-19.

In regard to caregivers, our government recognizes that caregivers provide a vital service for Canadian families in need. Which is why we removed barriers and are reuniting more families faster.

We consulted with the caregiver community, and they told us loud and clear that they don’t want to be separated from their families as was the case under the previous conservative program. This is why we’re now keeping families together and allowing family members to work and study in Canada.

We reduced the previous conservative government’s backlog by 94 percent, which helped more than 21,500 caregivers across Canada, and we reduced the processing time.

The caregiver pathways are designed to provide a clear, direct pathway to permanent residence for caregivers by assessing applicants for permanent residence before they begin working in Canada.

The pathways also remove barriers caregivers have faced in the past in bringing their families with them to Canada by providing open work permits for spouses/common-law partners and study permits for dependent children. The pathways also protect caregivers with an occupation-specific work permit; a caregiver can more easily change jobs if their employment is affected by COVID-19.