Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 17th, 2006

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

In British Columbia, I think there is one person in the whole province responsible for inspections of workplaces where agricultural workers are employed. Is this something the department finds acceptable, and is it a factor in your approval of temporary agricultural worker permits for folks coming to work in British Columbia?

[Daniel Jean]

I'm not familiar enough with that to give you a reasonable answer.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Okay.

With regard to the list of countries where refugee claims are made to Canada, I notice the United States is on there. Can you characterize those claimants in any way?

[Daniel Jean]

While there are a few long-term U.S. citizens, these are primarily the children of the third country nationals who have come to make a claim, as they've been in a difficult situation in the United States for a while and have decided to come and claim refugee status in Canada. Their children were born in the States, so they are U.S. citizens.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Last fall, there were some measures announced by the department and discussed here at committee around refused visitor visas, when the person applying was coming for a family occasion, like a wedding or a funeral. There were some new measures put in place, and a new appeal—or, at least, a new review—of those decisions was made. Is that process in place now? Has it changed the number of successful visa applications by visitors?

[Daniel Jean]

Those instructions were put out last summer, if I recall correctly. We're asking our officers, when they face a situation where people are coming for humanitarian reasons, a funeral or something like that, to exercise as much sympathy as they can in considering a visa. If they cannot consider a visa, the instructions also remind them that they have the authority to issue a permit, even though they think they may be taking a risk doing that. Yes, our officers are doing that. I don't have data on it, but I know that officers are exercising more discretion, both in visa issuance and permit issuance.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

How is the increase in parental and grandparental applications above the target accomplished? I guess it's almost double the target. Was there a special streamlining of the process within the department? You mentioned that the resources that were dedicated last fall didn't end up going to that kind of process.

[Daniel Jean]

Do you remember that the initial levels for 2005 had a target of 6,000 parents and grandparents?

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Yes.

[Daniel Jean]

Then it was adjusted to 18,000 by adding an incremental 12,000 for two years—last year and this year. So the actual target was 18,000.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Thank you, Bill.

I think we'll clew it up here, because we do have a delegation coming.

I want to thank you on behalf of the committee for a great presentation. I don't think you've been too badly bruised by it all. Thank you. We really appreciate it.

While we're waiting for our delegation to come in, we have a request from the Finnish parliamentary foreign affairs committee, who are going to be visiting Ottawa on June 5 and 6. They would like to meet with our committee. The Finnish parliamentary foreign affairs committee want to visit the committee to learn about how Canada has benefited from immigration, and about current trends and development plans.

Are there any opinions on that? Do you want to meet with this particular group? It's the Finnish parliamentary foreign affairs committee.

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

At the last session, the way we normally worked was to organize a dinner at the Parliamentary Restaurant, where we could discuss things, but not during committee work time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

It would be after committee work, like today.

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Yes, it's normally like today, with a dinner. It's informal, as we never had any formal meetings.

[Rahim Jaffer, Conservative, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Is there something in particular that they want to try to raise with us, or is it just that they want to come and exchange ideas?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

The parliamentary delegation are saying they want to meet with our committee. They want to learn about how Canada has benefited from immigration, about current trends and development plans that we have.

Finland is currently in the process of finalizing a new migration policy program, so the issue is very topical for the delegation and they would welcome the opportunity to share experiences with their Canadian colleagues.

It wouldn't really be a committee meeting.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

I'm sorry, Chair, I can't hear you with the noise in the room. Can you bring the room to order?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Maybe we could take some of the conversations to the back of the room or out of the room so we could deal with this one little request before our next delegation comes. I don't know if you all heard it.

We'll circulate this to all the members so maybe you can have an opinion on it at our next meeting. Do you want to do that?

Okay, Bill?

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Chair, I'd be happy to do something informally with them, but I'm loath to take formal committee time to do it at this point as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

This is what we were thinking. Maybe after committee we could have them come in and maybe give half an hour or an hour, have a chat, and open it up for questioning. It's up to you.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Or over dinner.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Or over dinner--whatever you want to do.

Okay, leave it with me and I'll see what I can do on it.

We'll adjourn.