Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 4th, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Good Monday morning, everyone.

I now call the meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 31 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

I would like to make a few comments for the benefit of our witnesses today.

I think everybody in the room has done this many times, so I don't have to go into full detail. I'll just remind everyone who is speaking that I'll do my best to provide you a one-minute warning before your time ends. Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. Please do not speak over each other, as it will be hard for our translators to translate. It makes their job difficult. Of course, please ensure that all of your comments are addressed through the chair. Members, kindly raise your hand if you wish to speak. The clerk and I will manage the speaking order as best we can. Thanks, everyone, for your co-operation.

I should also say that I know we have some new members here. I want to warmly welcome them.

I would also like to welcome Mr. Natilien Joseph.

Welcome to Mr. Matt Jeneroux, and welcome to Ms. Doly Begum. Welcome to our committee.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on September 16, 2025, the committee is resuming its study of Canada's immigration system. This is our 15th session on this study.

For this first hour, we are focused on the 2026 report of the Auditor General on the international student program reforms.

I'd like to warmly welcome our two guests this morning. We have with us the Honourable Lena Metlege Diab, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, and our new-ish deputy minister, Ted Gallivan, from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. Again, we give a warm welcome to both of you.

Minister, you have five minutes for opening remarks. Your time begins now.

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Thank you, Chair.

Colleagues, good morning.

We're here to discuss the international student program and the Auditor General's report. As I said the last time I appeared at this committee, we welcome the auditor's report that the international student program must have stronger oversight to eliminate fraud. The report covered a period starting from January 2023 and spanning the first year and a half of a four-year-plus reform plan that had already been initiated by the department. The final years of our multi-year reforms to strengthen the integrity of the program will benefit from the auditor's recommendations.

The report found important improvements. It showed that the new arrivals dropped by more than 60% in 2025, that the letter of acceptance verification system is preventing fraud and that the cancellation of the student direct stream, which was a high source of fraudulent activity, was very effective.

However, the issues raised by the Auditor General are being taken seriously. Officers are expected to flag, investigate and report suspected cases of potential fraud. Our teams will review all cases in the program flagged by the report by the end of 2026. Anyone who has submitted a fraudulent document in the past will have a note on their file for future border and immigration decisions.

We're also addressing study permit renewals. We've implemented an advanced analytics model to triage permit extensions and to assign them based on risk profile.

Extensions for those who came through the student direct stream are receiving additional scrutiny. By the fall, we expect to complete our audit of the permit extensions in the report.

Recognizing the improvements that were made and that more work is needed, I want to clarify the cases that were flagged as potentially non-compliant in the auditor's report. There were 153,000 cases that were flagged by schools for potential non-compliance. The department has since broken down that number, and 78% were cleared. The students were compliant or they transferred to another school or applied to another stream. The rest, 22%, were presumed to have left the country but may have overstayed their permits. To avoid this issue repeating, we're working on a process to identify and confirm when students with expired permits and no other applications in progress have left Canada.

This will also help the CBSA, the Canada Border Services Agency, with potential enforcement action.

Again, we expect to implement this system by the end of the year. We're also following up on 100% of flagged cases.

We continue regular consultations on program allocations with partners, including provinces and territories. This helps ensure provinces and territories have flexibility to align permits with their labour market needs—

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

You have one minute.

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

—and priorities, and the capacities of institutions and communities.

The bottom line is that, by the end of this year, we will review all cases flagged in the Auditor General's report. We will have added measures to strengthen program integrity, and we will remain on track to meet the planned four-year reforms.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you so much, Minister. Thank you for staying within your five minutes.

I want to get in as many questioners as possible, so I'm going to be very strict on time today.

We will begin our first round of questions for six minutes.

We begin with Mr. Redekopp.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses, the minister and the deputy minister, for being here.

Minister, it's been six weeks since the Auditor General tabled her report. Speaking of the 800 fraudsters you allowed to enter Canada, how many of them are still in the country as of today?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

With regard to the 800, what I can tell you is that IRCC has established a process whereby those who have misrepresented themselves on a document are flagged and can be deported, so—

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

I am going to interrupt, because we have very limited time.

I understand there's a process. I know you have that laid out in your departmental plan. However, the process is one thing, but the actual people are another. As of today, in terms of the people, how many of them are still in the country? Do you know? If you don't know, that's fine.

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

I don't have that information.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

All right.

Do you know how many of those 800 fraudsters made asylum claims?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

We do know the number of those who have made asylum claims, but I don't have the number out of the 800.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

You have it, then. Is that something you can provide to the committee?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

We know that 14% of the total 153,000 made asylum claims.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

That's different from the 800 fraudsters, but okay.

As for the 800 fraudsters your department didn't investigate, do you know where they are now?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Again, by the end of the year.... The department has an action plan, which has already been submitted to the committee. My officials here will speak to that. There's also a lot of progress being made to ensure that we work collaboratively and closer with CBSA.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

We've seen the plan. I understand that. What you are saying is that, as of right now, you don't know where those fraudsters are, and it's something that will be done in the future.

Paragraph 64 of the Auditor General's report talked about the 39,500 individuals who shouldn't be in Canada anymore. How many of them still have valid permits?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

The 22%, which is 33,000, that was the number of people who were flagged because their status expired.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

You're talking about a different one.

This is the problem with CBSA. It's about the ones who have lost their status and should have been sent out of the country. They are the 39,500 people identified in the Auditor General's report.

Do you know how many of them still have valid permits?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

I don't have that number right now.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Do you know how many of them claimed asylum?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Again, we know that 14% of the total of 153,000 claimed asylum.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

The 153,000 is a different number. These are the ones who.... I can see the confusion. This actually points to a lot of the confusion between CBSA and IRCC, because this is the point where IRCC is not communicating properly with CBSA.

Do you know how many of these 39,500 people the Auditor General found...? Just to remind you, this is when the Auditor General had to work with you guys because you didn't know the status of these people. You assumed they had left the country, and CBSA found that they didn't. Do you know how many of them left voluntarily?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

May I ask the official?

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

If you have those numbers, you could table them with the committee.

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

I don't have that number with me.