Citizenship and Immigration committee  That would be a determination by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration's visa officers.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, they would be exempt. They are in the category of protected persons.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  But I'd repeat that it's facilitative. It provides the opportunity to provinces should they choose to introduce such a residency requirement.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's a good question. In the course of developing policy options and doing policy work, there's a range of discussions that happen between federal and provincial officials to get background information and to canvas ideas. The immigration field is a shared jurisdiction, and the

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sure, and certainly I've seen the quote in the newspapers from the Ontario ministry. The fact is that this is a facilitative amendment. This is a federal act of Parliament. It was brought to our attention that there was a component of the act that could serve as a barrier to some

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In the conversations we had as part of a policy background, we were reminded by the Province of Ontario, in fact, that there was this provision in the federal act.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My understanding is that we've had conversations with all the provinces about the prospect of a measure like this. We certainly had deeper background conversations, like I said, about some of the incentives for unfounded claims.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, obviously something that is going into the budget process, going into the cabinet process, is subject to the confidentialities that go with that. This is in a budget bill, so it's to the government to decide what kind of background conversations they're going to have. But

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Other than the condition of minimum residency, no. The provinces and territories set rates and eligibility criteria, and they can vary from province to province.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll ask my colleague to follow up, but my understanding is that it dates back to 1951.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think it was put in place to facilitate primarily interprovincial mobility, the ability of people to move from province to province and have their benefits stay relatively stable. I don't think it was contemplating foreign nationals at that time. My colleague might like to fo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sure, and I've certainly seen some of the commentary in the media and some of the questions that members of this committee and other members of Parliament have had about this. No, this wasn't specifically requested by the provinces. This is a facilitative amendment, as we've desc

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As honourable members would be aware, under the Constitution social service benefits fall within the purview of provincial governments so they are the ones responsible for setting rates and eligibility requirements with respect to social assistance benefits. The only condition

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, and honourable members of Parliament. My name is Matt de Vlieger. I'm the acting director general of international and intergovernmental relations at Citizenship and Immigration Canada. I'm accompanied by Mr. Daniel MacDonald. He's the chief of Canada