Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 13th, 2008

[Andrea Lyon, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada]

No, the deputy articulated my nodding.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

All right.

Is there time left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Forty-five seconds.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I'll pass that on.

[Wajid Khan, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Fadden, the colleague across the way asked a very legitimate question, and I will try to repeat that. Although we did welcome some 430,000 people, about 4% fewer people arrived as landed immigrants. Could you tell us why? And how would the legislative changes of Bill C-50 reverse the spiral, or will they reverse the downward spiral?

[Richard Fadden]

Mr. Chairman, there are two components to my answer. One is that we have to be careful about whether we're talking about landings or visas issued. The government does not determine when people come to Canada.

Last year, we issued something in the order of 251,000 visas, which is within the range the minister tabled in Parliament. There's nothing Canada can do about whether these people come to Canada at a particular point.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Mr. Karygiannis.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Fadden, you stated that the government has absolutely no control of when people land. Did I understand that correctly?

[Richard Fadden]

Yes.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Fadden, don't the health, medical, background clearance, and passport have to be valid? Don't they have one year from whenever the medical...?

You're the deputy minister, sir; you must know this.

[Richard Fadden]

I meant that just because a visa is issued on a particular date doesn't mean that people will get onto a plane the next day and come to Canada.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

But they have to be in Canada within one year of the issuing of the visa, or even less sometimes.

[Richard Fadden]

That's correct. Some come immediately; some take a year.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

In 2006, we had fewer people landing than in 2005. In 2007, we had fewer people than in 2005. You issue the visas, and they have a couple of months to come to Canada. Overall, there was a yearly drop of about 10%.

[Richard Fadden]

The reason is that in the last three years the number of temporary foreign workers who came to Canada increased by about 30%. We have the same officers dealing with both temporary foreign workers and permanent resident applications. Since they're just-in-time applications, we deal with them first.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Fadden, you said the minister issued 250,000—that was the range. So there were fewer people coming in than in other years.

[Richard Fadden]

There were fewer permanent residents coming in, not fewer people.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

There were fewer permanent residents, the people with the PR card.

[Richard Fadden]

There were fewer people intending to stay, that's correct.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

There was a drop in applications in 2006 and there was a drop in applications in 2007.

[Richard Fadden]

I don't know about the statistics for 2007.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Those are the statistics you provided to me.

[Richard Fadden]

I don't doubt you; I just don't remember the numbers. But I don't think we saw a drop in 2007.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Mr. Linklater, do you have a comment?

[Les Linklater]

In respect of applications, I don't have the figures with me today, but as to admissions to Canada as permanent residents, there were approximately 262,000 in 2005 and about 237,000 in 2007.