Bill C-12

Strengthening Canada's Immigration System and Borders Act

An Act respecting certain measures relating to the security of Canada's borders and the integrity of the Canadian immigration system and respecting other related security measures

Part 1 amends the Customs Act to provide the Canada Border Services Agency with facilities free of charge for carrying out any purpose related to the administration or enforcement of that Act and other Acts of Parliament and to provide officers of that Agency with access at certain locations to goods destined for export. It also includes transitional provisions.
Part 2 amends the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to create a new temporary accelerated scheduling pathway that allows the Minister of Health to add precursor chemicals to Schedule V to that Act. It also makes related amendments to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (Police Enforcement) Regulations and the Precursor Control Regulations .
Part 3 amends the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Cannabis Act to confirm that the Governor in Council may, on the recommendation of the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, make regulations exempting members of law enforcement from the application of any provision of the Criminal Code that creates drug-related inchoate offences when they are undertaking lawful investigations.
Part 4 amends the Oceans Act to provide that coast guard services include activities related to security and to authorize the responsible minister to collect, analyze and disclose information and intelligence.
Part 5 amends the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Act to authorize the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to disclose, for certain purposes and subject to any regulations, personal information under the control of the Department within the Department and to certain other federal and provincial government entities.
It also amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to authorize the making of regulations relating to the disclosure of information collected for the purposes of that Act to federal departments and agencies.
Part 6 amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to, among other things,
(a) eliminate the designated countries of origin regime;
(b) authorize the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to specify the information and documents that are required in support of a claim for refugee protection;
(c) authorize the Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board to determine that claims for refugee protection that have not yet been referred to the Refugee Protection Division have been abandoned in certain circumstances;
(d) provide the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration with the power to determine that claims for refugee protection that have not yet been referred to the Refugee Protection Division have been withdrawn in certain circumstances;
(e) require the Refugee Protection Division and the Refugee Appeal Division to suspend certain proceedings respecting a claim for refugee protection if the claimant is not present in Canada;
(f) clarify that decisions of the Immigration and Refugee Board must be rendered, and reasons for those decisions must be given, in the manner specified by its Chairperson; and
(g) authorize regulations to be made setting out the circumstances in which the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration or the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness must designate, in relation to certain proceedings or applications, a representative for persons who are under 18 years of age or who are unable to appreciate the nature of the proceeding or application.
It also includes transitional provisions.
Part 7 amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to, among other things,
(a) authorize the Governor in Council to make an order specifying that certain applications made under that Act are not to be accepted for processing, or that the processing of those applications is to be suspended or terminated, when the Governor in Council is of the opinion that it is in the public interest to do so;
(b) authorize the Governor in Council to make an order to cancel, suspend or vary certain documents issued under that Act, or to impose or vary conditions, when the Governor in Council is of the opinion that it is in the public interest to do so;
(c) for the application of an order referred to in paragraph (b), require a person to appear for an examination, answer questions truthfully and produce all relevant documents or evidence that an officer requires; and
(d) authorize the Governor in Council to make regulations prescribing circumstances in which a document issued under that Act can be cancelled, suspended or varied, and in which officers may terminate the processing of certain applications made under that Act.
Part 8 amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to add two new grounds of ineligibility for claims for refugee protection as well as powers to make regulations respecting exceptions to those new grounds. It also includes a transitional provision respecting the retroactive application of those new grounds.
Part 9 amends the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act to, among other things,
(a) increase the maximum administrative monetary penalties that may be imposed for certain violations and the maximum punishments that may be imposed for certain criminal offences under that Act;
(b) replace the existing optional compliance agreement regime with a new mandatory compliance agreement regime that, among other things,
(i) requires every person or entity that receives an administrative monetary penalty for a prescribed violation to enter into a compliance agreement with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (the Centre),
(ii) requires the Director of the Centre to make a compliance order if the person or entity refuses to enter into a compliance agreement or fails to comply with such an agreement, and
(iii) designates the contravention of a compliance order as a new violation under that Act;
(c) require persons or entities referred to in section 5 of that Act, other than those already required to register, to enroll with the Centre; and
(d) authorize the Centre to disclose certain information to the Commissioner of Canada Elections, subject to certain conditions.
It also makes consequential and related amendments to the Retail Payment Activities Act and the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Administrative Monetary Penalties Regulations and includes transitional provisions.
Part 10 amends the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Act to make the Director of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada a member of the committee established under subsection 18(1) of that Act. It also amends the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act to enable the Director to exchange information with the other members of that committee.
Part 11 amends the Sex Offender Information Registration Act to, among other things,
(a) make certain changes to a sex offender’s reporting obligations, including the circumstances in which they are required to report, the information that must be provided and the time within which it is to be provided;
(b) provide that any of a sex offender’s physical characteristics that may assist in their identification may be recorded when they report to a registration centre;
(c) clarify what may constitute a reasonable excuse for a sex offender’s non-compliance with the requirement to give at least 14 days’ notice prior to a departure from their residence for seven or more consecutive days;
(d) authorize the Canada Border Services Agency to disclose certain information relating to a sex offender’s arrival in and departure from Canada to law enforcement agencies for the purposes of the administration and enforcement of that Act;
(e) authorize, in certain circumstances, the disclosure of information collected under that Act if there are reasonable grounds to believe that it will assist in the prevention or investigation of a crime of a sexual nature; and
(f) clarify that a person who discloses information under section 16 of that Act with the belief that they are acting in accordance with that section is not guilty of an offence under section 17 of that Act.
It also makes a related amendment to the Customs Act .

Strengthening Canada's Immigration System and Borders Act

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, John Nater]

Questions and comments, the hon. member for Kingston and the Islands.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Mr. Speaker, a lot of talk has occurred today regarding the comments of the Leader of the Opposition when he referred to the RCMP as “despicable”. We have been asking some members of the Conservative Party about this today. Some have wanted to say something, like the member for Bow River who referred to the RCMP as having “management weaknesses”.

Others, on the other hand, have not really wanted to weigh in. The member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands—Rideau Lakes had a lozenge in his throat when he was asked about it, and he therefore could not say anything.

I wonder if the member would like to weigh in as to whether or not he thinks that the leadership of the RCMP is despicable.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Parkland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the government tries to distract Canadians from the real failures that the government has created. It is despicable that the government has not given the resources to our frontline officers to do the job they are doing, and the Liberals are hiding so they can avoid accountability for the failures.

The CBSA union has said that morale is at the lowest level that it has ever been, and that is under 10 years of failed Liberal leadership. Conservatives will take no lessons from the Liberals on how to stand up for—

[The Acting Speaker, Rob Morrison]

The hon. member for Kenora—Kiiwetinoong has the floor.

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora—Kiiwetinoong, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member just spoke about the Liberals' failures. Of course, the Liberals have been in government now for 10 years, and what we have seen is that they have broken the bail system and that they failed to get frontline officers on the border and law enforcement the resources they need.

I am wondering whether the member wants to speak more on the pattern of failure of the Liberal government to keep Canadians safe.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Parkland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his hard work for his constituents. We know that he is doing an excellent job in northern Ontario.

It is clear that the ideological bent of the government is not to empower our frontline officers to do their job. The government is one that is beholden to a woke ideology, wherein it passes bills like Bill C-75, which tells judges to let criminals out at the earliest convenience with the least number of restraints. It is clear that it is policies like this that are being called out by frontline police officers and by police associations, and that are causing the havoc and violence we are seeing on our streets. Our party stands behind our—

[The Acting Speaker, Rob Morrison]

Questions and comments, the hon. member for Shefford.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, an important aspect of border security that I talked about in my speech is human resources. We need enough officers and workers so that border crossings are effective. To improve the situation, the Bloc Québécois suggested allowing the CBSA to patrol between border crossings.

Budget cuts at the CBSA are nothing new. When I was working as an assistant to the former member for Brome—Missisquoi, we were already talking about this key issue. At the time, it was the Conservatives who were making cuts that had major impacts on the operation of the border crossings.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Parkland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, we know that with the longest undefended border in the world, there is no way we could hire enough police officers or CBSA officers to man every inch of our border, and that is why we need to make investments in technology and equipment. However, when the government had the opportunity to hire Canadian workers and Canadian businesses, what did it do? It chose to hire Black Hawk helicopters from the U.S. government, and it had to give a Transport Canada waiver because the helicopters were not safe to fly over Canadian skies.

Why are the Liberals choosing American companies over Canadian companies that do the job? We need to grow our made-in-Canada border security and not hire companies that have to get waivers because they are not safe to use in Canada.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is once again an honour to rise on behalf of the resilient residents of Oshawa. Those are the residents who I believe are among some of the hardest-working Canadians in the country, but they are concerned about their safety. They are concerned about their safety when they are in their neighbourhoods and walking downtown, and they are concerned about border safety and the drugs that are freely flowing in our country, not just through the border, but from the free drugs people are getting from the government, which are being resold. We will talk about that later.

Canadians have heard a lot of big promises from the Liberal government about keeping our country safe, protecting our borders and restoring confidence in our immigration system. There are all of these wonderful things, yet after 10 years of Liberal government, both our borders and our public safety have rarely been in a worse place.

The legislation before us today is Bill C-12, the strengthening Canada's immigration system and borders act, which the Liberals claim would fix the very problems they created. I am reminded of something I learned in my education, and that is something called narcissism. I bring this up because narcissists engage in what clinicians call “crisis creation” or “drama seeking”, which is to manufacture a situation. In my opinion, the Liberals have created the situations that allow them to dominate, control and be admired for saving others. They are keeping Canadians in constant trauma and creating, therefore, a trauma bond. The Liberal government constantly disappoints and then claims it is going to be the hero we can trust to come in to save the day from a crisis it created.

The bill is being sold as a solution, but Canadians have learned that, with this government, the title rarely matches the contents. Bill C-12 is a sequel to Bill C-2. Thankfully, Conservatives looked closer, and what we found were some sweeping data collection powers, warrantless search authorities and new threats to Canadian privacy. Therefore, through pressure, thankfully the Liberals have been forced to take Bill C-2 apart. Now we are left with Bill C-12, a slightly repackaged Bill C-2, but with many of the same problems.

In my job as an educational therapist for 20 years, we talked about breakdown points, and sometimes it seems very negative to talk about breakdown points when we are talking about families, children with learning disabilities and things like that, but in this scenario, I think breakdown points are very important because we cannot come to a conclusion or a solution unless we discover what the breakdown points are, so let us talk about that.

Canada's asylum system, once the envy of the world, is now buckling under the weight of Liberal mismanagement. A decade ago, the backlog was under 10,000 cases. Today, it is over a quarter of a million and growing. Legitimate refugees wait years while bogus claims clog the system. Failed claimants appeal for years, and more and more often remain in Canada indefinitely, collecting benefits that many Canadians themselves do not receive, so this is not compassion. This is the chaos creation I was speaking about.

It started when the government decided it was going to play politics with our borders. In 2017, Justin Trudeau's #WelcomeToCanada tweet encouraged tens of thousands of people to cross illegally from the United States to claim asylum, many after already having been rejected in that safe, democratic country. Since then, more than 100,000 people have entered Canada illegally. Most are still waiting in the system, many housed at taxpayers' expense, while the truly vulnerable, those fleeing real persecution, are left behind.

This is not fairness. It is, rather, failure.

A broken asylum system does not just strain compassion. It undermines public safety. We have seen the consequences at our borders and on our streets. Under the government, criminals slated for deportation have disappeared, illegal guns continue to cross our borders and the fentanyl crisis is devastating communities across the country, including in my own community of Oshawa. If we were to walk through downtown Oshawa, we would see the toll this crisis has taken: lives lost, families shattered, and neighbourhoods struggling under the weight of addiction and fear.

Our first responders, outreach workers and volunteers are doing their best, but they are overwhelmed. According to Health Canada, more than 49,000 Canadians have died from apparent opioid toxicity since 2016, an entire community worth of lives. From January to June 2024 alone, 79% of accidental opioid deaths involve fentanyl, nearly double the proportion from 2016. Six months ago, my nephew, Cody Kirkland, died from an accidental overdose. Fentanyl and its precursors are the reason for that.

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I would like to express my condolences to the hon. member on that tragic loss.

The House resumed consideration of the motion that Bill C-12, An Act respecting certain measures relating to the security of Canada's borders and the integrity of the Canadian immigration system and respecting other related security measures, be read the second time and referred to a committee.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Mr. Speaker, before we broke for some time, I was discussing the fentanyl crisis here in Canada. I mentioned my nephew, who lost his life to an accidental overdose six months ago in the middle of our last federal election campaign. I brought him up because I do not think the Liberals—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, John Nater]

Order. I would just ask all members in this chamber to please take their conversations to the lobbies behind the curtain, and we will resume the debate.

I encourage the hon. member for Oshawa to back up about 25 seconds.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as I continue my speech, I want to re-mention my nephew, Cody Kirkland, whom we lost in the middle of the last federal election campaign. He passed away due to an accidental overdose, and fentanyl was the cause, so it is close to home. I know folks in my community and folks across the country recognize how important this fentanyl crisis is and what is going on.

I hope the Liberals across the way will pay attention to this. I hope they will not have to have a crisis or a tragedy in their own families before they realize just how bad it is across the country. Police have uncovered superlabs operating right here in Canada, synthesizing fentanyl from precursor chemicals imported from China. Last fall, RCMP officers dismantled the largest and most sophisticated drug lab in Canadian history, capable of producing multiple kilograms of fentanyl each week, along with caches of loaded firearms, explosives and half a million dollars in cash.

This is the reality. Fentanyl is not just a drug problem; it is a public safety and national security crisis fuelled by organized crime and enabled by weak borders. It is a humanity problem, yet Bill C-12 is silent on the tools police and prosecutors actually need. There are still no new mandatory prison sentences for fentanyl traffickers. There are still no tougher penalties for gangsters who use guns to commit crimes, and the Liberals still allow house arrest for serious offences that endanger lives. Research and experience have shown that clear, consistent sentencing, including targeting mandatory minimums, deters repeat offenders and restores public confidence in justice.

We can already anticipate that the Liberals will soon stand and claim they are bringing forward new bail reform legislation, but Canadians remember the Liberal bail reform they already brought in through Bill C-75, instructing judges to release offenders at the earliest opportunity and under the least onerous conditions. In practice, it became a green light for repeat violent offenders to cycle in and out of the system, with tragic results in communities across Canada. Canadians do not need more Liberal announcements about bail. They need consequences that mean something and a justice system that protects victims and stops protecting repeat violent offenders.

We have a border system that cannot enforce removals and an immigration system so backlogged it invites abuse. We have a justice system that treats violent offenders as victims while law-abiding citizens face more restrictions than ever.

Conservatives believe in secure borders, a fair and orderly immigration system and a justice system that protects Canadians before it protects criminals. We believe Canada should continue to welcome those fleeing genuine persecution, but compassion must be paired with order, fairness and the rule of law.

Bill C-12 may contain measures worth exploring, but Canadians cannot take the government's assurances at face value anymore. The privacy risks are serious, the enforcement gaps are dangerous, and the Liberal record demands skepticism, not blind trust. That is why Conservatives will carefully review the legislation, line by line and clause by clause, to ensure that it strengthens our borders, upholds privacy and defends public safety.