Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 10th, 2009

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Yes, thank you.

I think this is one of the most positive developments in our immigration system in a generation. It was announced last year, and in November we launched the experience class. This will allow qualified temporary foreign workers and foreign students who have met the terms of their visa and the requirements of the program to apply for permanent residency from within Canada. Before this, people who had completed their time as temporary foreign workers or students had to leave the country, apply from abroad, and go to the back of the queue. This meant we lost people who were already largely integrated.

A student might get an undergraduate degree from Canada, then have to return to their country of origin and wait in a queue for four years or longer to get a decision to come here as a permanent skilled worker. Now, as they approach the end of their studies, that same student will be able to apply within Canada to stay here. If they get a positive decision, I think that's a huge step forward in terms of aligning immigration with our economic needs. It will be easier. That person won't face the foreign credential recognition challenge or the Canadian experience paradox.

The same applies to the temporary foreign workers, who can then transition into permanent residency from within Canada. They will already be familiar with a trade or skill or profession within Canada. They will already have Canadian experience. In many cases, we hope the employers for whom they've been working as temporary workers will offer them permanent jobs.

I know many employers of temporary foreign workers who are very excited about the program. For two years they've invested in training people and providing them with housing. Now they have a readily trained employee who can stay here as a permanent resident, and we hope eventually become a Canadian citizen.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

As you know, our government has been working very hard to protect those vulnerable foreign workers. Does your department plan to take any kind of specific or further steps to protect these people who are in need?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Yes, thank you. In terms of vulnerable workers?

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Yes, vulnerable workers.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

In terms of temporary foreign workers, in fact later this spring I will be pre-publishing draft regulations for comment. Hopefully this committee can look at improvements in the temporary foreign worker program, ensure amongst other things that these workers are receiving the full benefit of the provincial labour codes, and ensure that if there are instances where employers are not meeting their legal obligations to foreign workers that there is some kind of sanction.

We also want to ensure the program is working efficiently on the employer's side. The whole idea of the program is to be quickly responsive to labour market needs. We want to ensure that there are sufficient protections, but also that there is no unnecessary red tape.

Those proposed regulations will be available for this committee's commentary later this spring.

In addition, I am interested in returning to Parliament with legislative amendments to help protect vulnerable foreign workers. There was Bill C-17 before the last Parliament, and I would invite input from the committee about proceeding with similar legislation.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Mr. Chair, do I have more time?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Well, you have about 30 seconds.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

All right. That's fine.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

Mr. Shory.

[Devinder Shory, Conservative, Calgary Northeast, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for coming this morning.

I have a threefold question, and I'd like you to touch on all three issues. I represent Calgary Northeast, and my riding has a large portion of South Asian communities.

Recently, you visited Pakistan and India, and you met with Pakistani and Indian officials to discuss immigration processing issues. This year's budget and estimates will include millions of dollars to address the processing issues. Number one, what did you gather from your various meetings?

Furthermore, Minister, notwithstanding your action for a faster immigration plan, I also noticed that the consulate office in Chandigarh, India, has some serious issues to deal with. Can you explain to the committee in detail what those issues are?

And number three, the last point, is whether this committee can be of any assistance in this matter.

Thank you.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Thank you.

Yes, I had a very instructive visit to two of our largest source countries and three of our largest visa and immigration offices, in Islamabad, New Delhi, and Chandigarh. I had a chance to meet with and get a new appreciation for the hard work and professionalism of our visa officers abroad and to review very closely their operations. I was very encouraged to see service innovations being adopted by some of those missions.

In one example, in the past year our Indian operations have adopted a business express service for the employees of businesses that have operations in Canada. They can register with our immigration bureau through the agency of our trade promotion offices to have their employees receive express service, which means that those who qualify are getting a business visa turnaround within 24 to 48 hours, typically, with a 100% approval rate. That's one of the many innovations we see in the field.

Obviously, we're facing many challenges in that region. I, like every member of this committee and every member of the House, register the frustration of many applicants and the difficulty that their relatives and friends have in obtaining visitor visas. That's particularly acute, of course, for applicants from Punjab out of the Chandigarh visa office. I am pleased to note that the approval rate for short-term visas out of Chandigarh has increased from 32% three years ago to 44% last year. As well, I believe they're making very reasonable efforts towards seeing a continued improvement in that situation.

One of the problems I encountered there that I think is one of the reasons for the relatively high rejection rate is a very high incidence of documentary fraud. That is the result of a network of unscrupulous and unregistered so-called immigration consultants and a related network of document vendors.

Our visa officers are encountering, in those two missions, literally thousands of applications with false declarations that are supported by counterfeit documents, by everything from drivers' licences and false university transcripts to job offers, funeral notices, and marriage certificates. There is the whole range of documents.

This is a very, very serious concern. Our department has taken steps to help combat this kind of fraud by developing certain expertise, but it really requires cooperation, in my judgment, with the local officials. We need the local officials in places such as that to investigate and prosecute document vendors and fraudulent consultants who are giving people bad advice and, quite frankly, exploiting them. They are trading on the good name of Canada to take large sums of money with a promise that they will give these people access to Canada. Very frequently, they end up actually injuring the interests of their clients by counselling them or by filling out false declarations and providing them with false documents. This, of course, causes the applicants, if they're found to have done this, to be rendered inadmissible for an application for the subsequent two years.

I raised these issues with the chief minister of Punjab. I was very encouraged that he gave us an immediate undertaking to assign a special police task force to work with our consulate in Chandigarh to identify, combat, and prosecute these fraudsters. I'm informed, very encouragingly, that he and his officials have followed up with this. We are also taking steps to—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Minister, unless there's agreement—

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Sorry. Can I just get one more sentence?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Sure, as long as it's not a long sentence.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

We're taking steps to warn people about this. We now have warnings in 17 languages on our websites. As well, we have warnings posted in four languages outside our offices in India, telling people they don't need the use of agents to obtain visas, and that if they do, they should ensure that they're registered agents. I've asked the department to come back with recommendations as to how we can increase that public awareness campaign.

Finally, I'd be delighted if the committee could review this issue, because I think it's one that should concern us all.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you, Mr. Minister.

That concludes the second round.

Mr. Karygiannis has served me with notice of a question of personal privilege, for which I thank you, and you have the floor for that question.

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

Are we having more rounds, Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We are, sir. You are next on the third round.

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

Right. I would like to address that, sir, at the end of our meeting. As I said to you, sir, I'd like to address that at the end, and I'd like to take my five minutes to ask the minister more questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

All right. You have five minutes.

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

Thank you, Chair.

Minister, I'm sure the name Lai Changxing is one that is relatively known to you. This individual has been in Canada for a number of years. He was on China's most wanted list. He's in Vancouver awaiting a court decision on his deportation, and certainly government after government has refused to deport him, because we know what China allegedly might do to him.

I'm just wondering, Minister, if you can enlighten this committee as to what, in your view, persuaded you to give him a work visa, versus previous governments that did not give him a work visa.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair.

Nothing persuaded me to give him a work visa because I didn't give him a work visa. I learned about the fact that he had obtained a work visa from media reports last week. Normally I wouldn't comment on a particular case, but all these facts are in the public domain, so I will go ahead and comment on the facts as they've been publicly reported.

Because of a court decision two years ago that stayed his deportation pending another pre-removal risk assessment and the requirement that the government furnish certain assurances with respect to his prospective treatment in China, he's here in Canada. He cannot be removed. He is, therefore, according to the law, eligible to apply for a work permit in Canada. And neither the department nor I have negative discretion to deny someone such a permit if they otherwise qualify.

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

Mr. Chairman, the question to the minister was....

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

The officer in question for this case, in our Vegreville operations centre, felt that he was legally obliged to authorize the work permit and that he had no negative discretion to deny it.

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

The question, Minister, was that you had awarded him a work permit. I will quote from an article on February 9 from Canwest News Service: “Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said awarding a work permit will not interfere with disposition of Lai's case.”

So if they have it wrong, and you didn't award him a work permit, why, then, did you not interfere and stop him from getting a work permit, as previous governments have done, since this man is on Canada's most wanted list?