IMMIGRATION: Help may be on the way for nannies and foreign workers

IMMIGRATION: Help may be on the way for nannies and foreign workers

There could be some good news on the way for nannies who plan to establish themselves in Canada under our Live-In Caregiver Program (the LCP).

The LCP has recently come under intense scrutiny due to a number of stories in the media about nannies who are abused by their employers and those who fall victim to some of the bureaucracy that currently surrounds the program.

Parliament’s Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration has been hard at work making recommendations on ways to improve not just the LCP but also the broader Temporary Foreign Worker program which encompasses all foreigners who come to Canada on a work permit.

The committee issued 36 recommendations in a report issued in May and another 7 in a report issued in June.

In May, the committee recommended the implementation of the “Juana Tejada Law”. Juana was a client of my firm who I wrote about twice in this column. She was the nanny who came to Canada under the LCP. After completing her two years of service, she underwent a second immigration medical exam which showed that she had terminal cancer which rendered her ineligible to be landed in Canada.
Although she was ultimately landed on humanitarian grounds before she passed away in March of this year, we proposed the passage of a legislative amendment dropping the second medical requirement which is asked only of nannies.

With respect to the LCP, the committee also recommended that

• nannies be granted conditional permanent residence upon arrival in Canada
• in order to satisfy the condition, they would have to provide evidence that they have accumulated two years of service within the first three years of their arrival

• a one-year extension could be granted where there is “good reason” the nanny could not complete her service within the first three years here

• nannies be allowed to study here without requiring a study permit (of course, if nannies are permitted to come here as conditional permanent residents, they would presumably wouldn’t need a study permit to pursue an education after-hours)

With respect to all foreign workers, the committee recommended that

• the accompanying family members of all foreign workers be eligible for an open work permit

• work permits no longer be employer-specific but rather sector and province-specific

• the live-in requirement associated with certain types of work permits be removed

• consideration be given to making foreign workers and their employers exempt from making contributions to employment insurance

Of the 43 recommendations made in total, if just these recommendations were passed into law that would be of tremendous help to our foreign workers and their Canadian employers.
However, the greatest beneficiaries of all would be our foreign nannies and those who they come to Canada to care for, namely, our young, our sick and our elderly.

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Guidy Mamann practices law in Toronto at Mamann, Sandaluk and is certified by the Law Society of Upper Canada as an immigration specialist. Reach him confidentially at 416-862-0000 or at reporter@migrationlaw.com.