Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 24th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Go ahead, Ms. Kingsley.

[Michèle Kingsley]

There is a requirement for students to let us know if they change institutions. When they do let us know, we capture that information within GCMS, but unfortunately, it's not extractable in a way that we can easily report on. It is an area we're looking at enhancing, and we do get reporting from DLIs twice annually on student attendance, so right now we're taking a layered approach in determining that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Go ahead, Mr. Maguire.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

It's not really clear how you track whether they change from one designated college or learning institute to another.

You gave us some numbers in your opening comments. I'm wondering if IRCC has ever considered prohibiting immigration consultants who are not registered through the College of Immigration and Citizenship when applying for a letter of acceptance from a designated learning institution or a study permit. We talked about unscrupulous consultants. Do you—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Ms. Kingsley, you have 30 seconds to respond.

[Michèle Kingsley]

IRCC won't process applications that are submitted by consultants in Canada who are not licensed or that aren't submitted from counsel.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Mr. Maguire.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

On prohibiting immigration consultants who aren't registered, do they all have to be registered? How do you track the ones who aren't?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Ms. Kingsley.

[Michèle Kingsley]

The college, which was established in 2021, and the act that led to the establishment of that college are really clear on who can operate as a consultant in Canada and what criteria they need to meet. The college has a registry published on their website.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Can you table that list with us?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you. my friend.

If you have a question, we can come back to you in the next round.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

I have just a couple of quick questions. Like Ms. Kwan, I'll just write them in.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you.

We'll go to Mr. El-Khoury, for five minutes. Please go ahead.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would also like to thank the witnesses for being here.

Ms. Kingsley and Mr. McCrorie, some students who obtained a temporary resident permit for three years are still awaiting the outcome of their case review. Can you tell us why the Canada Border Services Agency doesn't return these students' passports?

[Aaron McCrorie]

As previously alluded to, this is a new process with a task force reviewing these individuals.

As a matter of policy, under normal circumstances, with people who are in similar situations, we take their passports so that we're in a position to remove them if we have to do so down the road. That is kind of a normal operating policy and procedure for normal circumstances.

These are not normal circumstances. This issue has just come to my attention. We are going to be reviewing it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you.

Mr. El-Khoury.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Ms. Kingsley, the former minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, the Honourable Sean Fraser, told the committee on June 14, 2023, that he had set up a task force with senior managers in the department with a view to making the process more intelligible. Can you tell us how this initiative was helpful?

[Michèle Kingsley]

Thank you. Yes, I certainly can.

The task force was established immediately after being announced by the minister. It includes an IRCC assistant deputy minister, a Canada Border Services Agency assistant deputy minister, four directors general and some 30 analysts, by which I mean the officers who review the cases.

One very concrete benefit was the issuing of 30 temporary resident permits. We were able to determine that 63 students were legitimate, but that 40 were not. Approximately half of the latter will have an opportunity to submit additional information, if they have any, to demonstrate that they are genuine students.

In most instances, the main benefit of the task force was that it allowed us to determine from a paper review that an enormous number of students were genuine, but that they had unfortunately dealt with unscrupulous agents.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Thank you.

A new internal policy paper forecast 1.4 million applications from foreign students by 2027. The Department of Citizenship and Immigration therefore planned for a rapid increase in foreign students in a document about creating a category of recognized universities and other higher learning institutions that would be eligible for fast-track processing of foreign student study permits. Can you please tell us more about these forecasts?

[Michèle Kingsley]

Thank you.

The plan to develop a list of recognized institutions is being worked on. We held preliminary consultations with a number of institutions earlier this summer to obtain information, such as the type of support they provide to the foreign students they accept, and to identify what percentage of the fees paid by these students is reinvested in that population, whether by funding mental health support services or employment support. The purpose is to identify the results for the students at each institution to establish what criteria should be used to determine the designation of institutions that would benefit from the fast-tracking of applications from their students. The initiative is moving forward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Mr. El-Khoury, you have only six seconds to thank the officials.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Mr. McCrorie and Ms. Kingsley, thank you very much for your time and your clarifications, which have at least given us an idea of what is happening at these two federal institutions. Let's hope that we can clarify and address all kinds of problems in these two meetings.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you.

To finish off this round, all parties now have a maximum of three minutes.

I know, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, that you don't need three minutes, but I will say that parties have up to three minutes each.

Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, please, go ahead.