By Manuela Gruber Hersch, ACNA Canada

Canada’s live-in caregiver program has been successful for decades. However, changes in April 2010 designed to protect foreign caregivers and a decreased quota of permanent residence applications for 2012 have many in the industry concerned about the program’s future.

The live-in caregiver program allows Canadian families to hire a caregiver from abroad to look after, for instance, young children, aging parents or disabled people in the home. The Canadian government has carved out a pathway to permanent residency that caregivers may choose to apply for after completing a certain number of hours of work within four years of entering Canada through the live-in caregiver program.

The government has targeted allowing 8,000 to 9,300 live-in caregivers to become permanent residents in 2012. That’s down from 12,000 to 16,000 in 2011.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says that the permanent residency quota is being cut due to a reduction in demand. Yet according to many employment agencies, demand for caregivers is still high.

The perception of reduced demand has been created by changes to the program and longer processing times. Last year’s changes put much of the onus on the families hiring caregivers to pay the upfront costs of bringing them to Canada. Many families, for example some single parents or mothers on maternity leave, have become reluctant to pay recruitment fees, airfare, temporary health insurance, and immigration consultant fees for a caregiver from across the globe whom they have never met and with whom they have no guarantee if the relationship will work out. In some situations, caregivers accept jobs in rural areas then, upon arrival in Canada, leave to find a more appealing location.

Some question whether asking employers to bear the large financial burden is a hidden tactic to slowly and quietly eliminate the program. To make it more fair to families, the government should consider spreading fees out after the caregiver has arrived and it has been established that the family does in fact have care in place.

There are 29,000 live-in caregiver program permanent residence applications in the pipeline and frustrated caregivers are waiting longer to receive their permanent residence status while they are apart from their own families. It’s a different scenario from the one Mr. Kenney promised in December 2009, when he said caregivers would now have a faster and easier path to permanent residency.

Caregivers are also still waiting for the much advertised “blacklist of employers,” unpublished since April 2010. Missing too is the new information packages for live-in caregivers announced in December 2009.

To truly protect caregivers, the program needs a monitoring body to ensure that caregivers are protected and employers follow the rules. We need to monitor the program a lot better to guarantee that this very unique and highly complex program works for both parties.

Caregivers are also frustrated by the increased wait for their stage approval (open work permit) from six months to 18 months. Citizenship and Immigration Canada call centre agents tell some caregivers that the reason it is taking so long is that once they get their open work permit they stop working as a caregiver, which coincides with the feeling that the government is trying to deter families from hiring overseas.

Cumbersome and complicated

At end of the day, the program provides Canadian families a care solution for their children, elderly, or disabled loved ones. Families use the program due to the shortage of Canadians interested in this type of work. Yet, statistics show that 11,231 caregiver work permits applications were approved in 2008 and only 2,702 in the first half of 2011.

We anticipate further decline as families are refusing to risk their money and become fed up with the very cumbersome and complicated process including the extremely long processing times. However, Canadians haven’t stopped having children. The regulations of late have put the industry into a state of flux and possible hiring families have simply put off the decision until more certainty as to the fairness of the program can be redefined.

If Mr. Kenney wants to keep the integrity of the live-in caregiver program, he should look at the statistics supporting the use of placement agencies. They would demonstrate that reputable caregiver agencies have legitimate, fair employers who follow labour standards, no hidden family reunification, long-term placements, and approved applications that are not clogging up the immigration system.

CIC has reduced targets for the program in order to focus on other immigration programs. But while the live-in caregiver program is a small part of overall immigration targets, it is disproportionately important to working Canadians and Canada’s aging population and should be exempted from target reductions. It is too vital of a program to Canadian families!

Don’t we want both parents to contribute to Canada’s economy or does this government want moms to stay home? Dual-income families put more money into the economy and raise our national tax revenue base. Today you need two income earners just to have an average standard of living. We also know that seniors stop spending money once they move into a care facility; shouldn’t we support our seniors to remain at home as long as possible with the help of a private caregiver?

If Mr. Kenney intends to keep the live-in caregiver program alive, he must make immediate remedies, but, most importantly, bring all parties to the table and come up with truly balanced reform this time.

But watching Minister Kenney continue to promote his significant live-in caregiver program improvements to the House immigration committee on Nov. 24, it is clear that he seems delighted where the program is going.

We just hope the Canadian government has alternate plans for working parents and the approaching silver tsunami.

Manuela Gruber Hersch is the president of the Association of Caregiver & Nanny Agencies Canada and has been operating a caregiver agency since 1996. She came to Canada as a live-in caregiver from Austria and employs a live-in caregiver for her two daughters.

editor@embassymag.ca

OTTAWA — Immigrants admitted through the government’s foreign live-in caregiver stream say they’ve been duped by the immigration minister, who touted the program’s success and certain growth prior to the May election, only to claw back on the number targeted for permanent residency next year.

Although the government maintains 98 per cent of live-in caregivers eventually become permanent residents, last week Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said fewer people were qualifying for the program, adding that it was one of two streams poised to take a hit in 2012 as the government freezes overall immigration while boosting certain economic streams.

It’s a far different tune than the one Kenney was singing last year.

“I predict that the live-in caregiver program will be a growing and important part of our immigration system in the future,” Kenney told a group of mostly Filipino nannies in a March 2010 video posted on YouTube.

It’s passed around among caregivers and advocates who have turned to an online forum and Twitter to voice their concerns.

“Kenney promised the moon and now ignores cries of caregivers for help,” says one Twitter post.

“How can you do this to us? Just like that, why would caregivers not qualify for PR? You said we contribute to Canada’s families,” says another.

Catherine Manuel, a live-in caregiver and volunteer with the GTA Caregiver Action Centre, said in an interview that she’s worried the government may be phasing out the program and questioned whether Kenney is a “turncoat” whose pre-election musings were little more than a ploy for votes.

The Filipino native — about two-thirds of live-in caregivers come from the Philippines — said the caregiver community was “blooming” when she first applied but that it’s been “a mess” for the last three years.

Critics say changes to the program adopted in April 2010 aimed at protecting caregivers from exploitation are part of the problem. The changes have actually cast a chill over the market, they say, making it onerous and risky for employers to hire live-in nannies who look after both young children and the elderly.

“Families now have to cover all the recruitment fees, the airfare, temporary health insurance for the first three months and also an immigration lawyer or immigration consultant,” said Manuela Gruber Hersch of the Association of Caregiver and Nanny Agencies Canada, which represents matchmaker companies and seeks to set standards for an industry that has suffered a bad rap in recent years.

Caregivers, however, are free to work for somebody else once they clear customs, she said, adding they often do, whether it’s because the family isn’t a good fit or because they want to be closer to friends or relatives.

“People want to hire a nanny but they ask ‘what guarantee do I have that this person is actually going to work for me,’” she said.

It’s a contributing factor toward declining numbers, she says, but the need for caregivers remains high given Canada’s aging population and the absence of a national childcare program.

She believes the government is deliberately trying to slow down or phase out the program — and if so, she urges Canada to consider an au pair program that would allow young people to enter the country for a couple of years to work with families, gain experience and perfect their language skills.

“Canadians don’t want to be nannies or caregivers,” she said. “We need some sort of program because I don’t see any change in that.”

Immigration lawyer Rafael Fabregas said the solution is to eliminate the two-tier system that currently exists for live-in caregivers, where the nannies must first obtain temporary foreign-worker visas and work as live-in caregivers for at least two out of four years before they and their families can seek permanent residency.

Instead, he believes Canada should offer immediate permanent residency to foreign caregivers on condition they work in the field and live with their employer for a set period of time, which could vary depending on whether it’s a rural or urban setting.

“For example, a caregiver who works in Toronto will require three years of work experience, while a caregiver who works in London will only require two years of work experience,” he suggested.

“This approach would give an incentive to caregivers to find employers who are outside the major city centres and adjacent suburbs.”

Not only would it get rid of a perpetual backlog in applications for permanent residence, Fabregas said it would “level the playing field” for both employers and caregivers. Employers will get timely access to a pool of candidates who are already in Canada, while caregivers will have their families around for support and be able to walk away from a bad situation knowing doing so won’t hurt their chance of becoming a permanent resident.

He also urges the government to make it a “lottery system” like the one used in the United States for Green Cards.

“Make available a certain number of permanent resident visas annually. If the quota is met, they can try again next year,” Fabregas said, adding the number ought to be based on labour market needs.

“Such a system would be far better than what we currently have.”

Kenney unveiled immigration targets for next year that show a reduction in the number of live-in caregivers who will be granted permanent resident status.

According to the figures, Canada has set a target of 8,000-9,300 for 2012. This year’s target range was 12,000-16,000, while Canada accepted nearly 14,000 live-in caregivers as permanent residents in 2010.

Statistics also show a significant drop in the number of temporary foreign worker visas issued to live-in caregivers. In 2007, Canada approved 11,876 applications compared to just 7,185 in 2010. Between January and June of this year, just 2,702 visa applications were approved.

The current wait time for both temporary foreign worker visas and permanent residency for live-in caregivers is 18 months.

That’s about how long caregiver Leo Roxas has been waiting.

The Filipino father, 28, has been looking after his employer’s three children for about two-and-a-half years and is hoping to be among the approximately 9,000 live-in caregivers who will be granted permanent residency in 2012.

He luckily landed a kind and generous employer but would like to be able to bring his wife and three-year-old son to Canada as soon as possible.

Eventually, he also wants to go back to school.

“My employer is really nice to me, the kids really love me but I also miss my family back home,” he said, adding many in his situation “really want to do other things other than caregiving.”

tcohen@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/tobicohen

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s plan to accept 10,000 more skilled workers into Canada next year is a sound one, and so is the government’s overall target of 255,000 newcomers. Some other changes make less sense, and may be motivated by politics, more than economics.

Mr. Kenney acknowledged that the seven-year backlog to sponsor grandparents and parents has become unmanageable, and announced a two-year moratorium on applications. In the meantime, however, he will increase the quota by 10,000 over two years, to 25,000, and introduce a two-year multiple-entry visitor’s visa for these family members.

To compensate, there will be a lower quota in other categories, including live-in caregivers. The target is 8,000-9,300, compared to 10,500-12,500 in the past two years.

Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Why would a country with a declining fertility rate and the expected mass retirements of baby boomers want to recruit yet more older people? “The government has it backwards,” says Sergio Karas, an immigration lawyer.

While family reunification is a goal for Canada’s immigration program, family-class newcomers already make up two-thirds of all those accepted. Parents and grandparents are unlikely to create economic growth and will have more health needs.

Live-in caregivers are a category that should be expanded. They perform a key role in the labour market: caring for children in a country with no national daycare policy, and looking after the elderly. There is already a shortage of quality care for the aged, a problem that will grow in years to come with the country’s demographic shift.

Canada’s live-in caregiver program is unique in the world, and allows caregivers to apply for permanent residency after living with a family for two years, caring for either children or the aged. It has real weaknesses, such as long application-processing times, abusive employers and nannies being recruited for “fake” jobs, but the program itself remains sound.

The government would be wise to put resources into having it run more smoothly, and make sure that well-qualified caregivers are recruited to bona fide jobs and that their permanent residency applications are processed in a timely fashion. As the population ages, Canada will need more of them.

SOURCE: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/canada-needs-more-caregivers-please/article2226252/

The government also is expecting a decline in the number of people who come to Canada as part of the live-in caregiver program “because fewer people are qualifying,” he said.

The overall point of the article is to stress the positive moves the Conservative government is making to shape the type of immigrants that Canada welcomes.  However, we are still seeing a vital, urgent and necessary need for child care solutions in Canada ignored.

In fact, we’ve found that families are being denied access to sponsorship for trivial reasons and are generally being given the run-around by Service Canada.

One thing for sure is that the demand for Live-In Caregivers has not decreased.  Agencies represented by the Association of Caregiver and Nanny Agencies Canada (ACNA) still report that the demand is far outweighing the supply of locally available candidates.  Overseas sponsorship is becoming even less of an option to fill the lack of labour already in Canada because of timelines that typically double the posted processing times on Citizenship and Immigration’s website.

It can also be argued that maybe caregiver from outside of the country are choosing other places to go in the world because of the dysfunctional nature of the Canadian Live-In Caregiver program.  Once finished a 24 month program (required to be completed within 48 months), there are currently 36 months of processing to finalize Permanent Residency, and even more time if they are sponsoring family members.  You read that right: it takes 3 years of processing after completing a two year program here.

Despite backlash from caregiver groups and advocated, culminating in a large meeting in Mississauga, Ontario earlier this year, the government has broken promises and ignored the community it relied upon for support in the last Federal election.

Canadian families feel they are also being ignored when the need for these caregivers is absolutely crucial and their government representatives are doing nothing to ensure that supply meets the demand.

1 1/2 years later, we are taking a look back and discussing ways to move forward for actual protection because, let’s face it.. we are worse off than we were before.  Double the processing times, on average, for caregivers and families in regards to LMOs, work permits, initial PR assessment (open work permits), final Permanent Residency and family reunification.  Abusive agencies and families moving to a “black market” unscrupulous industry.  Worse than that, the Conservative Immigration Minister has been silent on the issue after rallying the Filipino Canadian community to provide overwhelming support for his party in the last Federal election.

Today we met with a foreign Live-In Caregiver who has been put through the ringer and her story is shocking and shows exactly why agencies need to be regulated and enforcement needs to be taken seriously.  We’d like to share her story with you.

After working in the United Kingdom for 6 years, this nanny heard the stories of a good life in Canada and decided to come here to improve her skills and settle in one of the greatest countries in the world.  What happened next could well have tarnished that image in her mind, but instead she remains positive and says “the past is the past.. we have to move forward.”

Recruited to Ontario by a Toronto-based agency, the nanny accepted a job offer and left the UK to work for a seemingly nice family outside of the GTA.  After a year, she was told they were relocating, which they did often, and the nanny decided not to move with them.  The employer, a police officer, defaced the nanny’s work permit in anger by writing INVALID on it, which worried the nanny immensely.  Despite this encounter, she went back to the agency the brought her to Canada to find a job.

When the nanny went back to her agency, she was told they didn’t have any employers willing to hire in Ontario, which is common for companies that deal only with overseas recruitment.  She was shipped out to British Columbia without speaking to the new family and without viewing any sort of contract for the employment arrangement.  Upon arrival, she was shocked to realize that she would be making $2 less per hour than her job in Toronto due to the difference in minimum wages between the provinces.  Of course, her agency did not inform her of this.  The nanny may well have stayed with the family if the original promises of LMO and work permit paperwork processing were adhered to.  Unfortunately no paperwork was done and she was in a foreign country with no job, no family, no friends and no place to go.

Having been left to fend for herself, this nanny connected with a family in B.C. who took her in and provided food and shelter.  She helped look after their children and the household as a favour because she had absolutely nowhere else to go and could not find a job through her agency based in Toronto.  In exchange, this family provided her reference; after almost 2 years in Canada with three different families, this character reference would be the only one she acquired despite her hard work.  Of course, she eventually had to leave because she needed full time paid work to support herself but she will be forever grateful to this family for taking her in and providing her assistance.

Desperate to find a new job, she broke ties with her Toronto-based agency, despite threats from them saying she could only work with them because they brought her to Canada.  Her next agency encounter would not be much better of an experience for her though.  After contacting a local BC agency, she was put into a job with a family without first meeting the agency or the family at all.  To this day, she has never met any representative from the agency, never had an in-person interview and received few details of the job before she was placed there.

Being a smart foreign caregiver in Canada, the nanny asked about her LMO and work permit paperwork and the agency indicated that they don’t retain an immigration consultant because they don’t want to charge their families more money.  The families are left to do the paperwork on their own, probably with a bit of instruction from the agent, but as is common with companies who don’t retain the proper individuals to process the now very complicated immigration documents, the family failed to produce an LMO and she had to leave the family.

Coming back to the Toronto area, she attempted to find a job on her own through online services but she was exposed to the endless “trials” that unscrupulous agent and employers arrange.  The job was not secure, no papework was processed, but this time she learned quickly and left the job after only a few weeks.

This story not only underlines the fact that absolutely nothing has changed in the federal Live-In Caregiver Program, except for good employers paying more money to follow the rules.  Nannies are still being abused, families are still receiving poor information and guidance from rogue agencies, and those who are trying to adhere to the new regulations are finding  it very difficult when competing with the “black market” agencies and families.

A reputable agency could have shown the nanny in this story that…

- Families cannot take or deface your work permit; that is your document to have
- Agencies cannot force you to work strictly with them despite what threats they make
- Nannies and caregivers have the right to see their contracts before they start to work
- Agencies should be open and accessible to nannies for assistance and guidance
- Agents who never meet you, despite being in the same city, have no level of screening

We question how any caregiver agency can refer applicants to their clients without meeting them, or at least seeing them via video messaging, and still call themselves reputable.  While the nanny in this story is a fabulous person and employee, the agency puts their family at risk and shows no level of screening to either the employer or employee.

Our suggestion, which is shared by the Association of Caregiver and Nanny Agencies (ACNA) Canada, is to regulate agencies and enforce business practices throughout the industry so that the abuses of the Live-In Caregiver Program are stopped.  Immigration Minister Jason Kenney would much rather see agencies completely wiped off the map, but left to its own without any regulation, the industry will only experience more widespread abuse including lack of paperwork processing, poor job standards, and no support for the nannies or families who are trying to do things right.

We urge the Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to start talking about the LCP again, help ACNA regulate agencies in Canada and start responding to the caregivers about the exorbitant processing times they are experiencing!

5. Always keep good records of your experiences, including but not limited to obtaining detailed reference letters from your employers.  When applying to an agency or marketing yourself personally to new employers, this type of information is invaluable for your agent or new employer to make a good assessment of your experience, qualifications and abilities.  Your “portfolio” is one of your biggest assets in the search for new employment.

4. Maintain good relationships with your past employers so they are willing to speak as your reference.  Even if you have disagreements, if you stay a long time in a job, the family obviously saw something great about you and trusted you in the job.  However, some caregivers leave jobs on bad terms after long employment relationships.  This can often be unavoidable with abusive employers, but you need to take every step possible to ensure they are willing to speak on your behalf.  Showing years of experience in Canada with nobody to attest to it can be a red flag to employers who are looking for somebody new.

3. Upgrade your credentials in your spare time.  Some take Personal Support Worker courses, others take Early Childhood Education or Assistant courses.  For child care related applicants, we recommend exploring courses such as the one offered by the Mothercraft Insitute.  For elderly and disabled care applicants, look in to Health Care Aid training courses as sometimes Personal Support Worker curriculum is very basic and not as attractive to employers.  Updating your CPR and First Aid credentials on a regular basis is also a great asset.

2. Apply for USA travel VISAs.  One of the most attractive assets to a family is the ability for a nanny to travel with them to the USA or tropical destinations, and the USA travel VISA facilitates transit through or entry to most destinations.  Other specific VISAs for different countries can also be obtained throughout the course of employment if needed.

1. Get your drivers license and practice, practice, practice.  To give you an idea, at our agency we have tons of live-out non driver applicants but almost no live-out non-driving jobs.  If you are a newcomer to Canada, get started with your driving certification and practice as soon as possible.  If you are planning the transition to live-out but have not yet started to learn to drive, start right away!  You will get a better salary, have access to many more jobs and will experience benefits of the ability to drive for errands, personal trips, and work related activities.  Families often have multiple children in different schools as well as activities, so your driving experience will come in very handy and just may be the deciding factor between you and another applicant they are considering.

Hope this helps!  As usual, don’t hesitate to contact us at 416-221-6000 to ask any employment related questions.

While we don’t think a strike from work is feasible as many would jeopardize jobs, we think that protests are completely in order because of the lies told to these caregivers when they supported the Conservative Party’s Jason Kenney.

LCPcaregver writes “..does it not piss you off that all the fake politicians promised the filipino caregiver groups the moon and now after the election it is all forgotten and actually getting worse?”

Cebu Gal accurately describes caregiver struggles:

I think a protest is an excellent idea to be heard.  To me, the live in caregiver program is a total mess on different levels.

1.) Long processing times for caregivers for open work permits and PR
2.) I know several caregivers who are still having a 2nd medical in Canada before applying for PR
3.) Very hard to find employers with the current road blocks. While it may sound good for caregivers to pay 0 , it is not realistic I think….. My husband’s friend has a sister in SE Ontario who says that the employers are ” missing” and everybody wants to hire a local nanny.
4.) Processing times for local caregivers are taking up to four months, how can a nanny not legally work for 4 months.
5.) Problems with prov. health insurance in many provinces
6.) If you sponsor your family and one of them is sick, the caregiver won’t qualify for PR.

I doubt that the Government will kill the LCP but I have heard a few times that they may switch caregivers over to a regular 4 years like other temporary workers.

Laranel comments “i don’t know know why is it so hard for them to issue a work permit for us, what all i am asking is a work permit so i can work legally…there are very few employer who are willing to sponsor and to pay extra to hire a nanny….”

Please note that Laranel is already authorized to work in Canada!

Now we are seeing a group called Nannies On Strike on Facebook and various Twitter accounts such as CaregiversTakeAction popping up calling for a demonstration in major cities in late September. Lawyer Rafael Fabregas is holding a talk at a Thornhill church to talk with caregivers and it sounds like many in the GTA will attend to voice their concerns.

Our question is why is Jason Kenney not listening? This is starting to get ugly and the Immigration Minister would benefit by talking again with caregiver groups and the Association of Nanny and Caregiver Agencies to discover how caregivers are still suffering and how agencies and families are trying to cope with this dissatisfaction.

Jason Kenney speaking at Caregivers One Special Day

Unfortunately relatively few benefits discussed were adhered to.

Ironically, it is 16 months later and processing time are also 16 months for open permits, up from 6 months previously. Add on another 16 months minimum to get final Permanent Residence. This may seem like a natural consequence of our immigration backlog, but there are some serious priorities being misplaced when you consider the detrimental effects these inflated times are having on both the employees and our country.

For one, Kenney and Citizenship and Immigration (CIC) are forcing additional illegal work in Canada by putting caregivers in limbo while they wait for LMOs and work permits after already being admitted to the program, and also when they finish the program until they get their open permits and PR. Currently, it takes up to 4 months to get an LMO and work permit on a simple employer change or up to 6 months on a renewal with the sample employer. Remember, these are caregivers who have already been admitted to and are working in Canada. LCP members are constantly waiting and they are expected to wait up to 4 months with no salary and potentially no OHIP. If they let LCP lapse when waiting for open, they can be without a job if they are laid off their last job and without OHIP for over a year if they aren’t made aware of work arounds, mentioned by in a previous post.

The fact remains that nobody making minimum wage less room and board can afford to be without work for 4 months when they are supporting whole families abroad. Nobody can control them from taking cash jobs desperately, no matter what we tell employers or the caregivers. CIC can instantly fix this by giving implied status to caregivers who have received a positive LMO. The work permit renewal is an unnecessary delay which clogs government offices and incites illegal employment. We can only advise on the laws to a degree.

So not only are caregivers and families forced to break the law in dire situations, nannies are worrying constantly about their papers. This ultimately affects job performance and the quality of care our vulnerable persons are receiving.

Speaking of those we care for, what about the families of the caregivers? It can be years until they see their loved ones. 24 months in the program, 16 months for open work permit, minimum 16 months for PR.. We are talking 56+ months for family reunification if there absolutely no delays, and most are completing the initial program in up to 4 years because they are caught in changing jobs multiple times.

We have a few suggestions that might alleviate these problems:

- Give caregivers implied status with new employers once they receive an LMO and use the work permit transfer as a formality. This will cut down on illegal cash employment by cutting wait time down to 1 month instead of 3.

- Allow caregivers to have implied open status to change employers after the open permit is applied for. They wont have to work for cash as employers don’t have to worry about remitting taxes. Government gets more tax dollars, nobody is breaking the law and workers have less worries.

- Provide fast track open permit to spouse and Temporary Resident Visas to minor children conditional upon open permit being issued to the caregiver. Let the family come here for the last 16 to 18 months of processing if the caregiver has been approved in principal. We already know they are in good health and don’t have criminal convictions internationally and the family members’ status can be revoked if necessary.

Let’s be honest; the caregiver program changes really hit employers in the pocket books and sent shockwaves through the agency industry, but the caregivers are still royally being screwed here even though they were made extravagant promises. We have our families here, we can change jobs freely.. They can’t.

I urge you all to contact your local MP and voice your distaste for what has gone on here and continues to affect one of our most important assets: the people who care for the loved ones we don’t have all the time to take of.

Ian Minton
Business Manager
Execu-Nannies Inc.

—

Yesterday, Toronto immigration lawyer Rafael Fabregas tipped us off, via his Twitter @rafael_fabregas, that not only can foreign caregivers in Toronto maintain OHIP while on implied status when their work permit has expired, but it is not exactly new, just not commonly known.

For the last few years, and especially since the ballooning of caregiver Permanent Residence processing times, we have met no less than one caregiver per day at our office who has no OHIP coverage due to being denied renewal as their permit is expired.  However, these caregivers have implied status with their last employer on record and are just caught in the waiting period for the open permits.

One such caregiver we’ve been in contact with has been without OHIP for over a year and this can be a nightmare if one were to get ill or even if they need to get a simple prescription.  It has been a mystery to us why CIC would allow caregivers to enter Canada for a 4 year period but not make concessions for them during processing times that they, themselves, control.

In a consultation with a new applicant yesterday, a caregiver confessed that she did not know what she would do without OHIP during the over 4 1/2 month wait for her new work permit with the same employer.  She can legally work here and provide health care to her elder patient, but can’t even go to the doctor herself!

However, the OHIP renewal for implied status caregivers apparently is not done in the traditional way.  Mr. Fabregas notes that caregivers should contact Thorncliffe Neighourhood Office and speak with Maria Leynes at 647-296-6204.  We wonder why so many caregivers have been denied OHIP renewal thus far through the traditional routes and why Health Canada has not brought more attention to the ability to do this.

Rafael Fabregas will be speaking on immigration matters at St. Paschal Babylon Church at 92 Steeles Avenue West, Thornhill on August 27th at 1pm.  We encourage any and all caregivers with questions to attend.

Our thoughts go out to the caregiver’s family.

B.C. stabbing victim was nanny to local family

CBC News

Posted: Aug 16, 2011 7:08 AM PT

Last Updated: Aug 16, 2011 7:08 AM PT

A former Vancouver Sun photographer says the Burnaby woman stabbed to death outside her home last week came to Canada from the Philippines to work as his family’s live-in nanny.

Craig Hodge said he learned of Josie Tomajin’s death when he found his wife on Facebook in tears.

“She couldn’t talk and I took the little iPhone out of her hand and looked at the screen and there was the story about Josie,” Hodge said.

Tomajin was attacked on the street outside her home in the 6700 block of Elwell Street on Aug. 8. She was found lying in the middle of the street about a block from her home. Tomajin was taken to hospital where she later died.

Her son, Benedict Tomajin, has been charged with second-degree murder in his mother’s death.

Hodge said the victim worked as his family’s nanny for three years.

“She was just a wonderful woman,” he said. “Very giving, very loving. She treated our kids like her own and you could just see the love for the kids. I mean, she basically raised them.”

Under Canada’s live-in caregiver program, caregivers are eligible for landed immigrant status and family reunification. But in Tomajin’s case, Hodge said, that took six years.

“So by the time she was reunited with her eldest son, he would have been about 20. So that’s tough, when you leave a 14-year-old behind and bring him to a new country.”

Hodge said Tomajin’s husband in the Philippines left her while she was in Canada awaiting reunification.

He said the government should shorten the reunification waiting time.

“When these families, after a prolonged period of time, reunite and reunite in a foreign country — I mean, it’s tough moving to a new country, but moving to a new country when you may not have had your mom by your side during the six years leading up to that could place enormous strains on the family coming to Canada,” he said.

“I would just like to see the government work on shortening up the time of the reunification.”

Hodge said Tomajin kept in touch even after she stopped working for the family. Two days before her death, Hodge said, Tomajin sent the family an invitation to be her Facebook friend.